SF 505 
.R23 
1914 
Copy 1 



W 




DUCK 

CULTURE 

.s»w*--^«^ SIXTH •►^EDITION A^u^ ^\^ 
REVISED AND ENLARGED 



»ll|^^ 




^ JAMES RANKIN ^ 

THE A.D.H05TERMAN CO., PUBLISHER 
SPRINGFIELD, OHIO. 



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Kasteru OO'iee, Press ItiiildiiiK', Biii»]iainton. \. \. 



NATURAL 



AND 



ARTIFICIAL 

DUCK CULTURE 



By JAMES RANKIN 

SOl'TM HAS I ON. MASS. 
19U 



Price: 7J^ cents. 



i^lX IH KDl HON. RK\1SKD AND KNLARGtD. 



Copyrighted 1914. 
THE A D HOSTKFIMAN TO.. Publishers. Springfield. Ohio. 
All Rights Keserved. 



\314- 

CONTENTS AND INDEX OF SUBJECTS 



Page, 

Advantages With Ducks. . 14 

Artificial Poultry Growing 24 

Aylesbury Duck 27 & 35 

Abnormal Livers 8t) 

Beginning in Duck Business 37 

Breeding House, Outside Plan of 15 

Breeding Stock, First Class 37 

Breeding Stock, Absolute Necessity of Good 60 

Breeding Stock, How to Select 81 

Brooders, Regulation of Heat in 71 

Brooding House, Interior Arrangement of 65- 

Brooding House, Pens in 66- 

Buildings, Arrangement of 14r 

Buildings, Suitable 43- 

Buildings, How to Make Warm and Rat Proof IS 

Black Duck 31 

Careful Watering More Essential Than Food 7S 

Chinese Mandarin Duck 31 

Cayuga Ducks 26- 

Care in Dressing Ducks 84 

Crossing and in Breeding 34 

Disinfecting 32: 

Disinfecting the Ground a Necessity 85 

Diarrhoea 86- 

Diseases Traced to Bad Conditions 87 

Dressing Ducklings, Method of 82: 

Ducklings, How to Remove From Incubator 67 

Ducklings, Care for When Hatched 61 

Ducklings Must be Yarded Carefully 87" 

Ducks, Advantages With 14^ 

Ducks in Great Demand for Food 10 

Duck Culture an Important Industry 9^ 

Eggs, How to Keep for Incubation ; 45' 

Eggs, How to Turn 47 

Eggs, The Hatching of .47 

Farm, Rankin's 29 

Feed, Room for Mixing IS 

Feed, How to for Eggs • 3* 

Feed, Keep it Clean 38 

Feed, How to 68 

Feeding Formulas for Ducks .89- 

Feeding at Different Stages of Growth 89- 

Feeding, Mode of 19 

Free Range Unnecessary _ 19* 

Feather Eating ". ' 77 

Feathers, Sale of 21 

Green Food, Necessity of 76 

Heat, Regulation of in Brooders 71 

Heat : Required in Hatching 4ff 

Heat Required for Baby Ducks . . . . >Jf. .^ 61 

How to Ship Poultry jf. ./^-Z. 8* 

Heating System, Advantages of. . . .nr. • -XV *• ^■^ 

©CI.A369620 
APR-9I9K ''^f 



CONTENT* AND INDEX OF SUBJECTS-Continned 

Page. 

liiriibators .40 

Incubators, Where to Place 42 

Incubation. Stapes of 49 to 5S 

In Hreeding and Crossing ^A 

Indian Runner Duck 30 

Introduction 4 

Lakp or Pond Not Necessary Hi 

Ixjcation, Select a Good Site. 1-i 

Mall;.rd Duck 32 

Market Age of Ducks 23 

Moisture During Incubation 54 

-Muscovy Duck 30 

NtMi;iibors, Do Not Have Too Near 25 

Pfkin Duck 19 & 32 

Pekin, Advantages of 21 

Pens In Brooding House 66 

Ponds Not Necessary 10 

T'oultry Raising in the Country 11 

Precocity 36 

Qufstion Bureau 91 to 96 

Roiif-n Duck 26 

Rye as Green Food 77 

Sanitary Arrangements . .72 

Selection of Ducks for Market 80 

Thermometers, How to Choose and Use 45 

Where to Feed 16 

"Wood Duck, Common 31 

INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page. 

James Rankin, The Autlior 4 

Rankin's Incubator House 17 

Pekin Ducks 20 

i'ayuga Ducks 25 

Aylesbury Ducks 28 

Kgg Showing P^irst Indications of Fertility 51 

Kgg After 4s Hour's Incubation 52 

P^gg After 72 Hour's Incubation 52 

Egg After 96 Hours Incubation 53 

Hgg After 120 Hours Incubation 54 

Kgg After 144 Hour's Incubation 54 

Egg Showing Dead Embryo 55 

Egg After 192 Hour's Incubation 5b 

Egg After 14th Day 58 

Brooder 62 

Brooding House Plan 64 

Ito'ible Brooding House, Inside Plan 69 

Bird's Eye View of Rankin Farm 73 

Rankin's Double Brooding House (south side) 75 

Rankin's Double Brooding House (north side) 76 

Breeding Ducks On Rankin's Farm 79 

West Side of Lane, Rankin's Farm . . . H3 




JAMES RANKIN, The Author 

Ameriea's Reeoj^nized Leadin s' Authority for a Goneratiom 
on Duck C ulture. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Our original motive in publishing this little book, was 
one of self-defense, to relieve ourselves, in a measure, of a 
correspondence which was becoming much too large for the 
time at our disposal. After reading from fifty to one hundred 
letters per day, from people, asking all manner of questions 
concerning the hatching, growing and marketing of ducks, irt 

[ 4 ] 



UANKINS DICK HOOK 

detail, there were tu-t liovirs en<'U},'h in the twciUy-tour to 
answer them. This h<iok was published t«j meet these queries 
and j^ive our jtatrons our method of growint;;. supposing it 
wtiuld eover all the points in duck-culture, but it <locs not as 
vet answer the ends. The questions still come in far beyond 
liur ability to answer, and as our fifth edition is about ex- 
hausted, we now publish a si.xth, revised. eidari;cd and illus- 
trated; also addinj.,^ a Question Bureau, which will answer 
many of the questictns which have reached us durin^^ the past 
few years concerning the growing, as well as the diseases t<» 
which the Pekin duck is subject. Though we were in this 
busuiess for nearly forty years, and were eminently successful, 
we do n«»t claim to know all about it; but by persistent effort, 
careful selection and breeding, succeeded in developing a 
mammoth strain I'f Pekin ducks, which, for symmetry, pre- 
cocity and fecundity, stand unrivalled on this continent. 

Many of our customers at that time wrote us that their 
birds averaged from 150 to IGf) eggs per season. We would 
say that there is no domestic bird under so perfect control, 
s<t free from diseases of all kinds, or from insect parasites as 
the Pekin duck. From the time the little bird is hatched 
xmtil it is full grown and ready to reproduce its own species, 
it is under the perfect control of the intelligent operator, who 
can ])roduce feathers, flesh or bone at will, and even mature 
the bird and compel it to lay at four-and-a-half months old. 
There is no bird in existence that will respond to kind treat- 
ment, generous care and feed as the Pekin duck. On the 
tither hand, there is no l)ird more susceptible to improper feed 
or neglect, and a sad mortality is sure to follow among the 
little ones, where proper food and system are wanting. It 
may surprise some one to know that the preflisposition \^^ 
disease may exist in the c^::;'^ from wliich the little bird is 
hatched, or even in the condition of the parent bird which 
produces the egg. Strong physique in animal life, as in man, 
are like exotics, requiring the most assiduous care and culti- 
vation, and are the most difficult to transmit. 

Defects, like weeds, seem indigenous to the soil and will 
reproduce with unerring regularity, and will often crop out 
in all directir.ns, generations after you think you have wiped 
it all out. So it is one thing to produce an einiii; from good, 
strong, vigorous stock during the winter in inclement weather, 
when all nature is against you, and so poorly fertilized that 
if it hatciies at all, will hatch a chick so enfeebled in construc- 
tion that no amount of petting or coaxing can induce it to 
live, but quite another to produce an egg so highly vitalized, 

[ 5 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

markets personally and tease the dealers to purchase my birds 
in order to secure anything like satisfactory prices. Later on, 
that it will be sure to. hatch- a healthy young bird, bound to 
live under all circumstances. But this is not all the danger. 
The operator, though he may have good eggs, may be neg- 
lectful or ignorant, and the health of the young birds seriously 
injured during the hours of incubation; or he may have a 
defective machine which under no condition can turn out 
healthy birds. With healthy, vigorous parent stock, judicious 
care and food, there is no reason why good hatches of strong, 
healthy young birds may not be obtained and the same 
matured with very little loss. 

Since the last edition of our Duck Culture reached the 
public, there have been wonderful changes in the duck indus- 
try and those changes have all been in favor of the growers' 
profits. At that time the high price of labor together with 
its unsatisfactory nature, the ridiculously low price the duck- 
lings commanded during those summer months while poultry 
lovers were scattered along the seashore or patronizing the 
mountain hotels in the interior, made it extremely doubtful 
to the duck grower where his profits came in, but now, all 
this has been changed and in his favor. I do not mean in 
the methods of feeding or the extreme care necessary to 
facilitate the health and growth of the young birds, or of the 
ingredients composing the food at the different stages of 
growth but by the use of new and improved machinery, reduc- 
ing th« labor at least one half by the introduction of the gaso- 
line engine, the patent mixer, the pneumatic tank, systematic 
piping and last but not least the Mammoth Incubator of 
from five thousand to twenty thousand egg capacity which has 
not only reduced the expense of incubating the eggs by more 
than one half but has practically eliminated all danger from 
fire. The effect of all this enables the grower to nearly dou- 
ble the amount of his product without materially increasing 
his expense. For instance, many of these large duck plants 
are feeding from one hundred to three hundred bushels of 
food per day. Think of man with shovels and a trough, 
mixing all this with water to the consistency required. Ten 
minutes with the mixer would supercede many. hours of labor 
with the shovel. 

In days of yore, one man was required to do the watering 
while another did the feeding; now, by simply turning a 
faucet, fifty pens of ducklings are water instantaneously. 

Tramways are arranged so that food can be run the whole 
length of a 300 ft. building in cold weather and outside on 
days when the birds are .fed out of doors in warm weather. 

[ « 1 



UANKINS DICK HOOK 

In regard to incubating the eggs, ulicre we used frnty 
lamps to our incubators, now, one little heater is as easily 
cared for as one lamp, not only reducing the labor of incu- 
bating to a minimum but diminishing aH danger from fire. 

In those days, during the summer months, the supply 
<'{ ducklings would exceed the demand; the market was glutted 
.<nd the prices sometimes fell to eleven and twelve cents per 
piaind fur ducklings. Now, the market is eagerly watched 
by cold storage men and at the least sign of depression, the 
surplus stock is absorbed at once so that green ducks readily 
cduimand twenty cents jier pound at all seast)ns of the year. 

Of course, this state of things is highly gratifying to the 
j^ri.wer, assuring him immense profits and a permanent busi- 
ness. When interviewing the principal Boston marketmen a 
short time ago, they all assured me that their sales of green 
ducklings had mure than doubled during the past live years. 
There are now more than one hundred and fifty thousand 
ducklings grown each season, within a few miles of Bostdii 
and yet the demand is still in excess of the supj)ly. The 
demand for these birds is also increasing in our large hotels, 
in private families and is rapidly supplanting the call for 
capons and roasters; in fact, there is no business on the farm 
or in any line of agriculture that is so promising or will make 
such profitable returns for the capital invested as the growing 
of ducks for the market. It is bound to supercede the chicken 
business. 

I am often asked which is the most profitable— -the grow- 
ing of ducks or chickens. Of course, I have but one answer — 
ducks. Why? — for two reasons — you can always grow as 
many pounds on a duckling in ten weeks as you can on a 
chicken in twenty weeks and as you ha\e animal life to sus- 
tain but half as long in growing the duck as in the chick, the 
])ound of duck costs you at least two cents less than that <>f 
the chick. Again, you can grow but one crop of chicks in one 
season, as it requires the whole season to grow roasting chicks 
or capons but you can easily grow two crops of ducklings on 
the same plant, thus doubling your profits. 

Now, all this may seem very alluring to the amateur or 
the young beginner, but there is another side to this question — 
it is not all fun. He will find it far diilercnt from spending 
six hours on a revolving stool in the city and having eighteen 
hours to himself for rest, sleep, and recreation, for he must 
spend at least six months of the year from twelve to fifteen 
hours each day in hard labor with a good deal of thinking 
in between and if he is at all lazy or averse to using his 

[ 7 ) 



RA^klN'S DUCK BOOK 

muscles or likes his bed in the morning he had better choose 
a different occupation. 

I have in mind several instances where under the most 
promising and favorable conditions, men have made complete 
failures of the business through sheer laziness. A young man 
called on me a few days ago, saying that he wanted a little 
information. He had been growing from twelve to fifteen 
thousand ducklings for the market yearly. He said that his 
eggs were not hatching very well and that his ducklings were 
languid in their movements and light colored and that the 
mortality reached fifteen per cent. He was running two 
large Mammoth Incubators. Now, there was something 
wrong, as five per cent is about a normal mortality ; the trouble 
must be in the eggs. I asked him how he fed. He said, "the 
same as he had fed during the winter and the ducks seemed 
to do well on it. I said, "do you know that what would be 
ample for your ducks when in a quiescent state during the 
winter would not be sufficient for them to produce an egg 
each day weighing one-fourth pound, an egg so highly vital- 
ized and fertile that it would hatch out a vigorous young bird, 
bound to live under all circumstances. You must turn in a 
food that will savour largely of the ingredients of which the 
egg is composed. In short, you must concentrate your food. 
Cut out the beet pulp and one-third of the wheat-bran ; in- 
crease the corn-meal and Red-dog flour a little and the beef 
scrap and all animal food, at least one-half." 

I had the same experience with a young man two years 
ago who blamed his incubator. He had just bought a large 
Mammoth. I told him that his eggs were at fault and that 
he must change his feed. It was astonishing how well his 
machine hatched after that. Experience of this kind shows us 
how often success or failure in this business hangs upon things 
of so trivial a nature as to escape our notice.. A sufficient 
proof that we must exercise our brains a little as well as our 
muscle, in the duck business. 



I K I 



RANKINS I>r(K nOoK 



Natural and Artificial Duck Culture. 



It is only within a t'cw years that the imhlic at large has 
become awake to the importance (_)f the poultry interest.>i n 
the country. Formerly it was supposed to be of insignificant 
prf>portions compared to the beef and pork product. But 
recent statistics show that tiie poultry interests in magnitude 
not only exceed either of the above, but are vastly on the 
increase year by year. Yet, strange to say, the supi)ly, enor- 
mous as it is, does not keep pace with the demand. As a 
natural consequence, we are obliged to import millions of 
dozens of eggs from Europe, and carloads of poultry of all 
descriptions from Canada. (December 21, 1888, a train of 
twenty refrigerator cars h^ided with dressed poultry, aggre- 
gating 200 tons, arrived in Boston from Canada, — $r)().()(jO 
worth of dressed poultry at one shipment.) Still the demand 
goes on. Our large cities, which form the principal market 
for poultry and eggs, are growing larger every year. Fhc rich 
men who inhabit them are growing richer and more numerous, 
and are always ready to pay the poulteier a good round price 
for a first-class article. Good poultry has not only become 
an every day necessity to the well-to-do classes, but is a com- 
mon article of diet at least si.x months of the year on the 
workingman's table. It is everywhere recognized by i)hysi- 
cians as the best and most palatable, as well as tiie most 
wholesome and nutritious, of all our flesh diets. 
Duck Culture an Important Industry 

Duck culture now assumes a nio'^t important part in the 
poultry business, and yet, until within a few years, people did 
nut suppose that ducks were fit to eat. But now the public 
appetite is fast becoming educated to the fact that a nice, 
crispy, roasted duckling of ten weeks old is not only a dish 
fit for an epicure, Init is far ahead of either turkey, chicken 
or goose. As a natural consequence, the demand for good 
ducks is rapidly increasing. One of the principal poultry 
dealers in Boston assured me that his sales of ducks had nearly 
doubled in five years. Twenty-five years ago, when growing 
less than 1,500 ducks yearly, I was obliged to visit the city 

[ 9 1 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

with a ranch capacity of nearly 20,000 yearly, I could not fill 
my orders. 

Pond or Lake Not Necessary 

The reason is very plain. Jr^'ormerly people supposed that 
ducks could not be successfully grown without access to either 
pond, stream or coast line. As a natural consequence, a large 
share of the birds sold in the markets were grown on or near 
the coasts, fed largely on fish, partially fattened, and were any- 
thing but a temptmg morsel. For years there have been large 
establishments on the Long Island shores devoted to duck- 
culture. Large seines and nets were used regularly to secure 
the fish on which the young birds were fed and fattened. 
These birds grew to a large size and attained a fine plumage, 
but, as might be surmised, their flesh was coarse and fishy. 
Occasionally a person was found who relished these birds, but 
the majority of people preferred to eat, their fish and flesh 
separately. Now this is all changed. 

Duck-culture of today is quite a different thing from the 
days of yore. Then, the young birds were confided to the 
tender mercies of the old hen. Now, the business is all done 
artificially. The artificially-grown, scrap-fed duckling of the 
interior is a far different bird from his fishy-fed brother of the 
coast. He has been educated to a complete indifference to 
water except to satisfy his thirst. Taught to take on flesh and 
fat instead of feathers, his body is widened out and rounded 
off, and, when properly denuded of his feathers, is a thing of 
beauty. 

Ducks In Great Demand for Food 

This sudden popularity of the duck in our markets, the 
great demand for them on the tables of our epicures, together 
with the immense profits realized from growing them, has 
naturally created quite an interest among poultry-men; so 
much so that I was constantly flooded with letters filled with 
inquiries as to w^hich was the best variety to raise, which were 
the best layers, if they could be hatched in incubators, what 
kind of buildings were necessary, the amount of profit realized, 
^in short, wishing me to give them the whole thing in detail, 
which, were one willing, it would have ben completely out of 
one's power to do. As there seems to be no work published 
tn the country to meet this case' and answer these queries, — 
m i-ure self-defense, and through earnest persuasion of many 
friends, I shall, to the best of my ability, through this little 
treatise, endeavor to answer them, together with many other 
points which will naturally suggest themselves. 

I shall confine myself almost entirely to an exposition of 

[ 10 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

the artifu'ial method, tjivincj my own experience in the Imsiiiess 
for thirty years, in detail. In doini; this, the most approved 
huihliiii^s will he (both for hroodiiiy^ and hrccdint;:) descrii)ed 
in tull, together with cuts of the egjt in dilTercnt stages of 
incubation, and the living and dead germ compared, and how 
to distinguish each, plainly told, just here let me say that a 
great deal of skepticism prevailed among people in general and 
farmers in particular. They did not believe in the success of 
artificial jioultry growing, or, indeed, of growing it in large 
numbers in any other way. As a proof of their assertions they 
will tell you that more than three-fourths of the people who 
attempt the business on a large scale make a complete failure 
of it. And it is the plain truth. There are few communities 
in this country, large as it is, but that, at some time in the 
past, has had a bogus incubator within its limits, or a good one 
that has been baflly managed. The unfortunate experience of 
these men has spread for miles in all directions. There is but 
one verdict. The man is never condeii.Mcd. The system is so 
denciunced that a strong prejudice exists against all incubators, 
which it is difficult to combat. Every town, too, has had its 
representative poultry man who has erected extensive buildings 
with a view to growing poultry on a large scale in the natural 
way. He, too, has met with disaster. I^'ailure has attended 
his efforts, and the ct^mmunity is still more eml)ittered against 
the whole thing, and the emphatic 'It can't be done," meets 
you on every side. 

Now, there is a cause for all this. \\'here is it? In the 
men. They do not comply with the conditions of success, and 
failure is the result. We will endeavor to give some of the 
reasons why: Nearly three-fourths of these people come from 
the city. Now, city people have unfortunately imbibed the 
impression that the necessarv amount of brains and executive 
ability required to successfully run a mercantile, manufactur- 
ing or broker's business in the city is largely in excess of that 
required to run a successful poultry or agricultural ranch in 
the country. 

Raising Poultry in the Country 

Men who have impoverished themselves by repeated fail- 
ures in the city ccmie out to retrieve their fortunes by raising 
poultry in the country. They visit your place and see thou- 
sands of young ducklings of all sizes and ages, each one vieing 
with the other as to which will consume the most food. They 
are completely carried away with the sight. They question 
you closely in regard to the profit derived from the bti'^iness. 
and then openly avow their intention of doing the same thing 

t 11 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

themselves. You advise beginning small, and meekly suggest 
the possibility of failure through inexperience. The incredu- 
ions smile that plays over their features informs you that 
advice is wasted. "Why, hav.en't Lread up all the poultry 
jburrials and got the whole thing down fine?" 

Others, still, who, from close confinement at seden'..iry 
work in the city, are anxious to engage in '-i business which 
proir-ises equally to restore their health as well as t-.) provide 
ihivn a livelihood. These invalids conie out with tiieir cx- 
h. usted energies and dilapidated constitutions to engage in a 
l)usiness which, to insure success, requires a minuteness of 
detail and intensity of application second to none. They are 
unequal to the six or eight hours required of them on a revolv- 
ing stool in the counting-room in the city, but are equal to the 
fourteen and sixteen hours indispensable to the poultry busi- 
ness in the country. Is it strange that a large proportion of 
these men fail ? 

Others, still, come to us wishing to engage in the busi- 
ness, at the same time candidly acknowledging their complete 
ignorance and inexperience. They frankly state their circum- 
stances. They are poor, with families to support, and are 
not afraid of work, throwing themselves, as it were! upon one's 
mercy. They seek a good, healthy and fairly profitable occu- 
pation in which they can cultivate the physique and morals 
©f their children away from the temptations of city life. Now 
jou take kindly to ^uch men ; readily forfeit any advantages 
which may accrue to yourself through want of candor on your 
part, gauge their calibre, and to the best of your ability meas- 
ure their chances of success, and give them the best advice 
you can, which advice usually is to begin small,^say with one 
machine, buildings in proportion, and increase their plant as 
l^heir experience and judgment dictates. 

Raise Ducks and Chicks 

But the reader will say: "What has all this to do with 
duck-culture?" Simply this: It is to give the would-be 
poultry enthusiast some idea of what he has to contend 
^ith before he begins. To convince him that this is no 
child's play — that the care of young ducks and chicks means 
early hours and late. The closest confinement and applica- 
tion is required for at least six months of the year, and if 
fie is at all afraid of hard work or of soiling his fingers, he 
liad better stop where he is. The theory that the poultry 
business furnishes a good occupation for little boys and girls, 
superannuated old men and invalids, has long since exploded. 
iWe advise people to secure a fair share of health before they 

[ 12 ] 



RANKIN S DUCK BOOK 

begin and ilicii ihcv will be sure to koc-p it. As an imluce- 
ment to all. 1 w»juld say that there is notliini; in the way 
*>i tann industry or any other le,i,Mtiniate (>ccui)ation whicli 
will at all oi>ini)are with the profits obtained from poultry 
when artificially conducted. 1 here are. however, a few 
notable exceptions in favor of watered railroad stock, bogus 
mining shares, patent medicines, and the business dt)ne by 
our bank cashiers when guaranteed a safe transit through to 
Canada. I would advise all contemplating the poultry busi- 
ness to Combine the growing of ducks and chicks togethei', 
for the reason that more profit can be realized from both 
than fr(jm either alone, because they do no[ necessarily inter- 
fere with each other, and the same buildings and machinery 
•can be utilized for both. The brooding-house should be 
filled with chicks in November and December, which they 
will have outgrown by February, when the building will be 
recjuired for ducklings. The ducklings, strange to say, 
though two months younger, will be ready for market as 
soon as the chicks (provided the latter are held for roasters, 
a*; they should be) and the}- will both be in the market in 
time to Command the highest prices. This is what the poul- 
terer should always cater to, and machinery alone will enable 
him to do it. He who expects to incubate with old hens 
<luring the winter will surely get left. J'>ut more of this 
liereaftcr. 

Select A Good Site 

The first thing for one to do (if he is not already located), 
is to select a good site. It should have a gradual slope to 
the east or south, enough for natural drainage. No matter 
how poor the land, it will be rich enough before your fowls 
i;et through with it. I need not say that in those regions 
where snow lies upon the ground four or five months of the 
\ear, the ctmditions are not as favorable for the poultry 
grower as near the coast line, where snow, though a frecjucnt 
visitor, remains but a few weeks or days at a time. In the 
<^ne case it means close C(mfinement to the fowls a great 
part of the winter, with want of exercise and consequent 
want of action in the digestive organs. The food is not 
^issimilated. the fowls become debilitated, and though they 
may give a fair share of eggs, these eggs can seldom be 
depended upon to hatch. It is true, the active poulterer may 
overcome this in a measure by clearing away the snow for 
ten or fifteen feet in front of his buildings after each storm, 
and by a free use of barn chaff and chopped straw induce 
liis fowls to go out on sunny days, but all this increases his 

[ 13 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

work and makes the conditions against him. I simply men- 
tioji these facts, assuming .that where a man has his choice 
of' locations, these hints may have their proper weight in 
the matter. 

Advantages with Ducks 

The same rule holds good in a measure with breediftg 
ducks, though not in so great a degree. For instance, your 
hen when closely confined seems to lose her ambition, and 
spends a large part of her time on the perches, apparently 
indififerent to all sublunary things. Not so your duck. She 
is in constant motion, no matter how small her quarters. 
No meditation for her. Indeed, the days seem too short for 
her to exercise in, and so she keeps it up through a great 
part of the night. Her greatest ambition seems to be to 
distribute the few quarts of water you have given her for 
drink, evenly all over the pen you have just covered with 
dry, finely chopped straw, and make it as sloppy as possible, 
and it is astonishing in how short a space of time she will 
succeed in doing it. Again, snow and ice are the aversion 
of the hen. 

She cannot be induced to step in either except under 
pressure of circumstances. Not so your duck. She likes 
nothing better than to be out in a snow bank during a thaw, 
and if she can only work it up into the color and consistency 
of mud it suits her exactly. She does not mind the cold if 
she can only keep her feet warm. She is clothed with an 
impenetrable coat of feathers and an equally thick coat of 
down. She does not take kindly to confinement in a building 
and will utter her constant protest, and like the average 
school boy of ten, prefers to sufifer from the cold outside to 
being comfortable in. Therefore, the main point in breeding 
early ducks and erecting buildings for the same, next to 
supplying them with the right kind of food, is to keep their 
feet warm. Cold feet afTect the winter laying of the duck 
the same as a frozen comb affects the hen. It stops the egg 
production at once. 

Locate Near a Railroad. 

Your plant should be located on a line of railroad, in 
direct communication with one or more of our great city 
markets, and not too far from the station, as you will neces- 
sarily be in frequent and close communication with that. 

Arrange the Buildings 

to secure good room in front, also good drainage, and espe- 
cially with a view to reducing the labor to a minimum, both 

[ 14 ] 



RANKINS DUCK BOOK 

inside and out. Always rcmcnil)cr that llie lalK)r is the most 
expensive part of tlie poultry business. Now is the time for 
fcrctiiought and caution — save all the steps, all the work you 
can. You will never sutler from want of exercise, if your 
fowls do. I never knew a case of gout in a man in the poultry- 
business in my life. It is well, also, when arranging a poultry 
j)lant, to make provision for future contingencies, so that 
should one in the course of time and experience wish to 
increase his plant and the size of his buildings longitudinally 
he will have j^Icnty of room to do it, by simply moving the 
end of his building out as far as he wishes and filling in 
between. I was tibligcd to do this several times in the ctturse 
of my experience, and finally built a dtjublc brooding linuse 
'2')0 I'eet long by 16 feet wide. 

One important point in erecting poultry buildings is the 
difficulty in building them. 

Warm, Cheap, and Rat-proof 

Formerly I built stone foundations on whicii were i)laced 
the buildings, cementing the stone work to the sill carefully 
inside and out. This proved in tiie end not only an expensive 
but a very unsatisfactory arrangement, for cement it as one 
^vould the action of the frost would always part the sill from 
the foundatiitn and admit the cold air from all around just 
where it should be kept warm. I have since hit upon a jilan 
which has not only met the case but is compartively inex- 
pensive. Place posts, with one square side to them, about 
four feet apart, on which place the 2x4 inch sill. Set these 
posts in the ground so that the tops rise but one inch above 
the surface, with the flat side exactly horizontal and perpen- 
dicular to the inside of the sill. Then sink a hemlock l)oard 
twelve or fourteen inches wide into the ground inside of the 
building, and immediately in front of the two-inch sill, until 
the upper edge is flush with the upper side of the sill, nailing 
it firmly thereto, filling up inside nearly to a level of the 
top of the sill. This gives a warm, cheap foundation on which 
the frost does not act. Hemlock, too, seems to have an aft'inity 
for moisture and will last in that condition from eight to ten 
years, when it can be easily renewed. This arrangement is 
also comparatively rat-proof, as a hemlock board is a rat's 
aversion. It does not agree with their teeth. They cannot 
possibly dig under during the frozen months of the year, 
and as it affords them no coiicealment they do not care to, 
during the warm season. 

The Outside Plan of a Breeding and Brooding House 
wiih the exception of a liule more glas.-, in the latter, shoubl 

[ 15 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

be precisely the same both for ducks and ducklings. The 
internal arrangements can be made to suit. As I shall give 
a full description with cuts of this building later, I will now 
merely give the manner in which it should be arranged as a 
good breeding-house for ducks. This building should be fif- 
teen feet wide and any length required. It should have an. 
uneven double roof, five-foot posts in the rear and four foot 
in front. About one-quarter of this front should be glass. 
There should be a walk the entire length of the building three 
and one-half feet wide. The main body of the building should 
be divided into pens twenty feet long, by either lath or wire 
two feet high. 

The walk should be separated from the pens by laths 
three inches apart, to allow the birds to feed and water from- 
the walk. This method simplifies the labor very much, as 
it enables the operator to load his barrow, travel the whole 
length of a 200-foot building and feed and water 500 ducks 
in a few minutes. This arrangement has many advantages 
besides, as it permits the birds to feed and water readily from 
the walk without being able to waste either, or mix the con- 
tents of food and water-dishes with filth. It also prevents 
the birds from slopping the straw in the bottom of tiieir pens, 
or of soiling their white plumage, both of which they are 
bound to do if possible, and as the duck, especially the Pekin, 
is a very timid bird, this plan familiarizes her with the appear- 
ance of the attendant without bringing her into actual con- 
tact with him. 

Use Half the Pens for Feeding Purposes 

One^half or ten feet of the twenty-foot pens should be 
utilized for feeding purposes. The lower board of this slat 
partition should not be more than three inches wide and should 
rest upon the ground so the birds can readily feed over it. 
As this ten-foot partition is but two feet high, the attendant 
can readily step over it to'pick up a stray egg occasionally. 
Six feet of this partition should be portable and secured with 
a groove or button so it can be easily removed to allow the 
entrance of a barrow in cleaning out the pens; this should 
be done when the birds are out, never when they are in. 

The remaining ten feet of the pen should be used for nest 
boxes, which can be fifteen inches square and one foot high. 
.V board four inches wide may be fastened in front to prevent 
the nest material from bein^ Jrawn out. This latter may be 
composed of finely cut hay or chafif. This must be perfectly 
dry, as the duck while laying will work it all over and cover 
her eggs carefully, which as they are pure white, become easily 

[ i« ] 



RANKINS DICK HOOK 




[ 17 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

soiled and stained; this will necessitate washing unless things 
are kept dry and clean. This was a vital point with us, as it 
never did seem as if a filthy egg would hatch as well as a 
clean one. I always abominated a machine filled with filthy 
•eggs; it actually hurt my feelings to handle them. These nests 
should be covered closely and the partition above them be 
correspondingly high, as the birds will often mount upon the 
boxes. The back of the nest boxes next the walk should be 
closed with a board hinged below so that the attendant can 
Jet it down readily and secure the eggs from the walk. 

The Room for Mixing Feed. 

Some twelve feet of this breeding-house may be utilized 
as a cook and mixing room, and must necessarily be a little 
higher posted than the rest of the building, — say, two feet 
higher. This cook room, with boiler, is an essential thing in a 
duck-house. Unlike hens, they do not take kindly to hard food 
and whole grain. Their digestive organs, in many points, are 
different from the hens, and they do not assimilate hard food 
readily. They require more vegetable food, and those vege- 
tables must be cooked^ — but more about this hereafter. 

Of course, this building should be sweet and clean, and 
must be well deodorized; for, though ducks do not generate 
vermin like other fowl, and are not subject to as many diseases, 
or as readily affected by thermal changes, — in fact, a good 
driving rainstorm is their delight, — yet they will not thrive 
when confined in filthy quarters. It engenders a morbid 
appetite, impairs digestion, and your bird is poor before you 
know it. This, of course, arrests the egg production at once. 

I wish here to impress upon the breeder the absolute 
necessity of the careful handling and feeding of his birds; 
and, when necessary, handle very gently, always taking the 
bird by the neck. This is very essential, because the bones 
of a well-bred, well-fatted duck seem wholly disproportioned 
to the size and weight of his body, and we have often seen 
a wing broken or a leg disjointed by the convulsive efforts 
of the bird to escape when caught by those members through 
the carelessness of the attendant. 

The timidity of the Pekin is proverbial. You should move 
quietly among your layers if you would have them thrive, as 
constant agitation and disquietude will surely debilitate them 
and reduce their flesh. I have known a pair of heavy exhi- 
bition birds to lose a pound per day during their confinement 
the first four days of exhibition, and to be eight pounds lighter 
than they were ten days before when started for the show. 
Their recuperative powers "are equally wonderful. I have 

[ 18 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK liOUK 

often seen Pckin ducks, after havinpf produced one luuulrcfl 
ei^ijs in nearly as many days, on evincinp^ a desire to sit, 
and beinj^ sotnewliat reduced in flesh, when shut up in a 
yard with drakes and well fed, in less than a week cotninence 
her rci^ular contribution of an etji^ per day. 

Water Not Needed 
The majority of people have the impression that water 
to bathe in is essential to secure fertility in duck eRj;s, but 
it is a great mistake. My ducks never saw water, the year 
round, except to drink. They were confined in yards 24.\1()<> 
feet, some forty in each yard, twenty-fcur feet being the size 
of the pens inside of the breeding house, 'riiev were conlined 
in these yards for nine months, or till August 1, when tiiey 
were removed in order that the land might be disinfected. 
This was done by plowing and growing a crop of barley or 
rye, when the land was ready for the ducks again. 

Free Range Unnecessary 
I was constantly experimenting to see if there were dcfecLs 
in my system. A few years ago I had thirty breeding-yard.s 
devoted to ducks. I wished to ascertain the dilTerence in egg 
production and percentage of fertility between ducks yanled 
close and those with free range, the feed and other conditions 
being the same. One lot of fifty ducks were albnved the range 
of a five-acre lot, in addition to their ow'u yard. They range<I 
in common with our cows, there being plenty of grass. .An- 
other lot of seventy-five were allowed the range of the whole 
premises, with the same feed and care as the eight yards 
confined. The latter were liberally supplied with all the green 
and vegetable food needed. The egg production and the fer- 
tility of each were carefully noted. I was much surprised 
to find that the dilTerence was very little, and that, in favor 
•f the birds confined. 

The Mode of Feeding 
differs with the season of the year. During the autumn and 
early winter months feed twice each day about equal quan- 
tities of cornmeal, wheat-bran, and boiled turnips and pota- 
toes, with about ten per cent, of ground beef scrap thrown in. 
At noon, give a small amount of dry food. compt)sed of equal 
quantities of cracked corn. oats, and wheat. When the birds 
commence laying, as they will about January 1st, gradually 
increase the quantity of meal and animal food, proportionally 
decreasing the amount of bran. 

The Pekin Duck 

is my favorite. I experimented carefully during thirty years 

[ 19 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

'\A'ith all the larger breeds, crossing them in every conceivable 
way to obtain the best results, and was perfectly satisfied 
avith the Pekins. I was finally throug-h experimenting, and as 
I grew nearly 20,000 ducklings yearly, could hardly aflford to 
guess at it, as one cent per bird made a difference of over 




PEKJX l»rCKS 



:S200 in my receipts, — one cent per pound, a difference of over 
$1,200. It is readily seen that I could only afford to use the 
bird that would grow the greatest number of pounds of flesh 
in the shortest space of time. Nor is this all. It must be the 
bird that will give the the first eggs of the season, as this 
will enable you to get your birds on the market when they 
will command the highest price, as there is more clear profit 
Irom one early bird than from three later ones. This will be 
the more readily understood when it is known that the maxi- 
mum price paid for early birds is thirty cents per pound in 
Boston and New York, the minimum price for late ones 

[ 20 ] 



RANKIN'S DITK BODK 
eighteen cctils. the cosi i»f productiiin hcin;; the >ainc iuz both. 

The Pekin Combines the Best Points 

Tlu- IVkin is tlic (<n\\ l))nl thai will cuxor all these points, 
it has two slii^ht defects, — its extreme tiniithly and its heavy, 
coarse voice, which it does not scruple to use when conj^re- 
i^atcd in larj^'e numbers. The former can be easily overcome 
by, careful hatullin}^;. Ijut to ofF-set these defects the Pekin 
will not only produce the first eggs of the season, but by 
far the greatest number of any of the breeds, with one 
'exce[>tion. the Indian Runner. They mature earlier, are more 
hardy and domestic in their habits, nc\er wandering far, and 
always returning to the ctnips at night. They are not mis- 
chiex'ous, and rc(iuirc less water than either of the other 
breeds. 

.My birds were for generations bred in dry yards, with 
simply water to drink, and all desire for it for other purposes 
seemed to have been bred out of them. When allowed their 
freedom in the fall, the flocks never \isited the brook, hfteen 
or twenty rods distant, and when driven there occasionally 
for the purpose (tf purifying their feathers, got out again just 
as sor»n as possible. Indeed, after a water bath their feathers 
•clung to their bodies, and they jiresented the same bedraggled 
appearance that the old hen did many years ago after on« 
had immersed her in a water-barrel to cure her prope'sity 
for sitting. 

A wealthy Xew "SDrker ordered a dozen <<i my best 
ducks. In a few weeks he wrote that he wished to return 
them, as they did not answer his purpose; "for," said he. "I 
lia\ e an artificial lake on my lawn, near my i)iazza, and I 
wanted these ducks to disport in the water for the pleasure of 
my wife and clrildren, and they will not go in the water at 
all unless I drive them in with a whip, and I have to stand 
guard over them all the time, as they get out the moment 
my back is turned." I wrote him in return that had I known 
he wantcfl the flucks for their aquatic performances I should 
ha\ e recommended the common puddle duck, when he would 
liave liad a<= much trouble to get them out of the water as 
lie had to get the Pekins in. 

Feathers are Pure White 

Another ad\antage of the Pekin o\er the other breeds 
is their pure white, elastic feathers which are largely mixed 
wi»h down. These feathers readily command from forty to 
fifty cents per i)t)und, and as the reader can see. are nn mean 
source of income, especially when the birds are grown in 

( 21 1 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

large numbers. These birds, as their name indicates, origi- 
nated in China. They are large, beautiful birds, of a proud, 
erect carriage, with pure white plumage outside. The inside 
feathers are slightly cream colored. The neck is long and 
gracefully curved; the head long and finely shaped, with a 
full bright eye. The legs and beak are of a very dark orange, 
and form a fine contrast to the pure white feathers. The 
minimum weight of our birds when matured was about four- 
teen pounds per pair, while the very heaviest would tip the 
scales at twenty-two pounds. My first experience with ducks 
commenced more than fifty years ago. We used the common 
puddle ducks and grew them for the city market. The ducks 
were very small and so were the profits. They were fed but 
little and allowed full range, consequently the home ties were 
not strong. 

Those ducks followed the little brook in the pasture 
through swamps and marshes for half a mile in either direc- 
tion, wholly regardless of farm limits. If we expected any 
eggs from those ducks they should have been safely housed 
at night. This task devolved upon the boys. Now our 
paternal head, though a kind and indulgent parent (unfortu- 
nately for us), had the impression that boys were made to 
work, and work we did. Now, what boy of ten or twelve 
years had not rather chase ducks through the mud in the 
swamp that to wield the hoe among the weeds in the corn 
field? It was our recreation, our chief solace and delight 
those long, hot summer days — the anticipation of that duck 
hunt in the evening. I think my extraordinary love for the 
duck hailed from this date. Later on we used a cross between 
a Rouen and Cayuga. This cross made a much larger and 
better market bird. The flesh was better flavored. They pro- 
duced more eggs and began earlier in the sprijig, consequently 
prices and profits slightly improved. 

These birds did not stray far, but were as fond of mud 
and water as their little predecessors. It was a pleasing and 
comical sight to see three or four hundred of these ducklings 
of all ages, when first let out in the morning, run down the 
hill in their eager haste to reach the swamp, a part of them 
right side up, then rolling over and over on their broadsides; 
others still reversing themselves end for end down the steep 
incline, apparently a matter of supreme indifiference how, so 
long as they reached the mud first. 

These ducklings always returned at night with their 
numbers more or less depleted, as they were the legitimate 
prey of skunks, minks, weasels and mud turtles ; and if we 
reached the summer's end with sixty per cent, of the origi- 

t 22 ] 



RANKIN'S DVCK BOOK 

nal number \vc were well salisMed. All this lias been changed. 
A\'e have learned a number of points on duck culture since 
then. First, that all losses by vermin can be easily avoided 
by yardinj^ your little birds at home and keej)in.ii them under 
your own eye. Second, that mud and water e.xtcrnally a{)pliefl 
are not essential to their j^rowth and well-being, and that in 
fact they will thri\e better without. 

Ready For Market Three Months Earlier 

Third, that it is not necessary to keep your birds till they 
are si.x months old in the fall and then put them on the market 
when it is sure to be glutted, but much better to market them 
at tin weeks, when they are nearly as heavy, and you are sure 
to get more than double the price, as well as save three or 
four months extra feed. There are many other points con- 
nected with this thing which the novice must ponder care- 
fully before he begins, as a slight mistake in the beginning 
often means a great loss in the end. As pioneers in the busi- 
ness we were for many years carefully experimenting with 
the different breeds, different treatment and variety of food. 
We met with many failures, suffered some loss, but with a 
gradual inij^rovement through it all, which was very encour- 
aging to us, and though we did not claim perfection, yet we 
reaped a rich harvest compared to which, our former losses 
•were simply insignificant. It was a a source of gratilication 
to kn(nv that success at last crowned our efforts. 

When we look back forty years — when year after year 
■chronicled failure and our best eft'orts met with h^ss — when 
■we were the butt, ridicule, and laughing stock of the whole 
community; when we were assured again and again that we 
were fighting against nature and never could succeed, and 
repeated failures only seemed t<) confirm that assertion. — 
and compare it with later years when we grew our birds by 
the thousands, regulated the growth, controlled the mortality, 
and grew tlesh or feathers at will ; shortened the i)recocity, 
increased fecundity, and even educated the birds to an aver- 
sion for water, which was formerly their home; we completely 
reversed the order of things and taught our birds to reproduce 
at a season of the year when all nature is against them, we 
could safely feel the victory was won. We hope that our 
readers will not only benefit by the experience we shall pre- 
sent, but that many of them will be able to take this and 
•carry it r.n where, according to the natural course of things, 
we shall be obliged to leave it. We are no longer young, the 
infirmities and decrepitude of age are slowly creeping upon 

[ 23 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

US and admonish us that our days of research are nearly over, 
and we find that our life is all too short. But there is a 
satisfaction in knowing that others will take this thing up 
where we left off and carry it on to the end. 

The Superiority of Artificial Poultry Growing 

We predict a great future for artificial poultry growing. 
It is yet in its infancy. The time will come when it wili 
gradually supersede many of the regular farm crops on the 
sterile soil of New England, when every farmer will have 
his proper complement of poultry appliances, and when you 
can prove to the average farmer that the capital necessary 
to run a poultry plant (which will with less labor insure him 
a greater income than that from his whole farm) is less than 
one-fourth of that required for any other farm investment. 
You will begin to see him scratch his head to evolve ideas. 
The beginner in starting, should recollect that this is a busi- 
ness of detail and that small things must be taken into account. 
It is not only a very essential thing to choose the best breed- 
ing stock that can be had, but, all other conditions being the 
same, to select the color of their feathers. 

We have always had a predilection in favor of white 
birds, for the feathers (which are no small item in ducks) 
command nearly double the price of colored ones, and are 
always more salable. Again, we must cater for the market 
with young birds, and every one knows that young birds are 
more or less addicted to pinfeathers, many of which it is 
very difficult to remove, as they have secured a lodgment just 
under the skin, but have not found their way through. Now 
a dark pinfeather is a blot upon the fair surface of a fine 
chicken or duck, and the thrifty housewife in selecting her 
dinner will always leave the pins behind. She does not like 
a variety of colors in her duckling, if she does in her dress. 
The dealer, aware of this peculiarity of the ladies (who, by 
the way, form a large share of his customers) will, if he buys 
at all, cut you on the price. 

Unfortunately we started in with dark birds, but it did 
not matter at that time, as the Pekin had not been imported,, 
and there were very few Aylesburys in the country. We were 
surrounded by vermin of all kinds. Our young birds disap- 
peared mysteriously, and in such large numbers that we were 
nearly discouraged. Hawks do not trouble ducks, but rats, 
weasels and minks developed such a fondness for them as to 
completely atone for any neglect on their part. We made a 
free use of steel traps, guns, and phosphoretic poison. The 
battle raged for two years ; at the end of that time I think it 

[ 24 ] 



RANKIN'S I>1 CK HOOK 

wiuld he flilYiruh tn tm<l niu- <'i' the alxAo-inciilioiieci vermin 
onc-h'Urili of a mile from the place. Jt was a ,i;reat relief; 
our ducklings cnuld ratiL^e at will, even he left out during the 
night, and still the full complemeiu a])i)ear at the dou^h- 
troughs in the morning. 

Do Not Have Neighbors Too Near 
Another source of discomfort was our neighbors' cats. 
Now, we are eminently social in t)ur disposition, and enjoy 
<Hir neighbors' company \ ery nuich. We like to spend a 
social evening with them and have them do the same by us. 
But not so their cats. We never interchanged civilities with 
them, their visits were too ill timed and frecjucnt. Our duck- 
lings were carried off in large numbers, and in pure self- 
defense wc shot the cats. 

( )f course, this made trouble in our neighbors' families, 
especially the female porticm. by whom it was promptly re- 
sented. The principle of "touch my dog, touch me," was illu.s- 
trated here in all its force. No amount of provocation ever 
justified us in their eyes in killing their cats. With pater 
familias it was different. His atTections were not engaged. 
He recognized the necessity of the thing, laughed it off, and 
said it was all right. Now, cats breed fast and are very pro- 
lific, and our neighbors were j^lenty. and we are unwilling to 




CAYUGA LiL'CKS 

State the amount of our losses from those sources, ior fear our 
veracitv would be doubted. We endured this sort of annoy- 
ance for some twelve years, but made up our minds that if 

[ 25 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

we ever selected another poultry ranch we would locate our 
neighbors at a distance. We did so, and afterward had no- 
trouble from this source. 

We found that the Cayuga duck was a more precocious bird 
than the Rouen, and were better layers. The eggs were more 
fertile. They were also much hardier, and, as a consequence, 
there was less mortality among the young. But they were 
rather small in size, dressing only seven to nine pounds per 
pair. The Rouens were nearly four pounds heavier, but had 
their disadvantages. They were not so productive in eggs, 
and those did not give us the same percentage of hatch, while 
the mortality among the little ones was much greater. We- 
do not like to condemn any variety of birds on one trial, as. 
we may be unfortunate in our selection of a strain, but cur 
subsequent experience with these birds fully confirms the 
above; and though they are a large, attractive bird, we do 
not consider them as hardy as either Pekin, Aylesbury or 
Cayuga. 

W^e conceived the plan of crossing this bird with the 
Cayuga, with a view of increasing the size, not knowing. 
whether the good or the negative qualities of the two birds 
would prevail. W^e were very much pleased with the results 
of this cross, as it gave us all the good qualities of the Cayuga 
with the largely increased size of the Rouen. It gave us also 
a good table bird, the flesh of which was far better flavored 
than that of the puddle duck. We made the duck business 
then supplementary to that of growing chickens. Our chicks 
were hatched out early in the winter in order to secure the 
high prices. Our ducks during the spring and summer were 
not marketed until fall. We did not expect those ducks to lay 
till the first of April, and they did not disappoint us. If any- 
one had told us that young ducks could be made to lay at 
four or five months old, and that we could have our young 
broods out by the thousands at that time, we should have 
.called him i-nsane. We then gave our ducklings free range,, 
and, as a consequence, lost large numbers of them from eating 
injurious insects, which, in their haste, they did not stop to> 
kill, and paid the penalty with their lives. 

Now, the genuine duckling is proverbially stupid. He lias 
an immense faculty for getting himself into trouble, without 
the first idea as to how he shall get out. As, for instance, 
we had taken up some old fence-posts one day, and carelesslv 
left the holes (some two feet deep) unfilled. When feeding 
time came at night we missed many of our little ducklings, 
and at the same time, heard a great squeaking, which we could 

[ 26 ] 



RANKIN'S nrCK BOOK 

not locale. \\ c finally traced it to the post-holes, which we 
found nearly full of youn«^ ducklings, not much the worse for 
the adventure. When we look hack at the difficulties with 
which wc had to contend, and the losses we sustained in con- 
secjuencc. I often wonder that we were not disctiurai;ed. It 
was blunder after blunder, rej)eated always with the same re- 
sults. We had very little idea of the systematic care and 
regular food required to insure against loss and enable the 
young birds to attain a weight in a few weeks which we sup- 
posed refjuircd almost as many months. We still had the im 
pression that water was essential to the welfare of the birds, 
both old and young, and that eggs would not be fertile unless 
copulation took place in the water. So wc built a tank for use 
during the dry season of the year (which held about a hogs- 
head), and cemented it thoroughly. 

This tank we laboriously hlled with water for the birds 
to sport in, but it did not work, as it soon became so offensive 
that we were obliged to renew it at least every three days, so 
that we sot)n became tired of it. and once more allowed the 
ducks the liberty of the swamp. We never obtained more than 
half of the number of eggs that we got later on from our 
I'ekins. About this time the Aylesbury duck came under our 
notice, and we pr<)cured a number of them at once, as they 
came highly recommended, but they did not meet our expec- 
tations. They were a very pretty bird to look at, and their 
feathers were more valuable, but there the advantage ended, 
for the strain we «>btained was a trifle smaller than the mon- 
grels we had been breeding, — rather more delicate to rear, and, 
worse than all. we found it almost impossible to pick them. 
In all our experience before or since we have never seen any- 
thing to equal those birds. The tenacity of those feathers was 
exasperating. Every one was bound to retain its complement 
of flesh. Of course the birds were so disfigured that tlie most 
of them were retained for family use. It was no use to think 
of scalding them, — that would not only seriously injure the 
feathers, Init would com|)letely spoil the birds for Boston 
market, as scalded birds are rejected at once and classed with 
cheap Western fowl. 

\Vhile going the rounds of Boston market one pleasant 
June day, shortly after our experience with the Aylesburys, 
we noticed some flne young birds nicely dressed, that had evi- 
denily snow-white plumage. As this was before the advent 
of iced poultry, we sui)posed the birds harl come from the 
regions of the far South, and our curiosity was excited. We 
interviewed the dealer and were surj)rised to learn that the 
birds were grown to the north of us, and that they were the 

I 27 1 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

Pekin ducks we had heard of for a year or two, but had taken) 
no stock in. Yet here they were in the market, while ours 
were toddling about at home less than half grown. Here was- 
a revelation. We procured some eggs of this party, at once, 
and in due time hatched out sixty lively young ducklings- 
They were tended with the utmost care and not one was lost. 
We were very much interested in these little fellows, they 
were so hardy, and you could fairly see them grow. It occurred 




AYLESBURY DUCKS 



to me at this time to try and experiment with these ducklings^ 
keep a correct account of all food consumed by them, and 
ascertain what they cost per pound when ready for market. 
The average weight was taken from the rejected drakes which 
we did not need for breeding purposes, and which were culled 
out and sent to market at ten weeks old. We wxre very much 
surprised to find the cost to us (exclusive of the cost of eggs) 
was about 4^ cents per pound. We could hardly credit our 
own eyes. The calculation was made again and again with 
the same result. The same calculation was made a year later 
on two yards of some three hundred ducklings with a result 
obtained, when ready for market, of 5^4 cents per pound, in- 
cluding cost of eggs. 

As I had long since left the paternal abode, and for years 
had ceased to superintend the establishments of others, and as 
tlie following experience will be entirely my own, I shall here- 
after use the personal "I." It is needless to say that the figures 
arrived at from the calculations made of those ducks were 

r 28 ] 



RANKIN S DrCK BOOK 

Startling;. W hat ! can I grow ducks in three months as cheaply 
as I can grow pork in a year, or beef in two years, and there 
get six times as much per pound for it after it is grown? 
Yes, if figures tell the truth. Can 1 atTurd longer to grow 
large crops of fruit and vegctahles, working early and late, 
risking frosts and drouths, making a hare livclihoo<l, when 
with one-tenth part of the lal)(»r and capital involved 1 can 
grow a crop which drouths and frosts do ntit injure, and make 
five times as much? No! I have not had a hog on my farm 
since I kept a Kemp's spreader to work over the manure, 
and simply grow fruit and vegetables enough for feathered 
thieves and home consumi)tion. Another ([uestion arose: 
What shall I do with my cows? some sixteen or eighteen in 
number. l)ull. young stock, etc. 

My Farm 

Now, 1 had become somewhat proud of ni\- farm, a> 
what man does not who had quadrupled its increase within 
ten years? I was cutting yearly some two hundred tons of 
hay on less than half that number of acres, and 1 knew that 
if I sold my cows I should, in some way, be obliged to get 
rid of my hay and that would mean disaster to the farm. 
There might be no decrease in acres, but there would be a 
sad diminution in the tons of hay. The result was, I kept 
cows for my own use. r>uilt two new barns, each one hun- 
dred feet long, the basements of which were utilized for box 
stalls, accommodating sixty boarding horses. These con- 
\crted my hay and grain (for which I received the market 
l>rice) into manure. This was all 1 expected and all I got. 

Some time ago a gentleman from New York caught me 
hoeing in my onion patch. He expressed his astonishment 
at the size of the onions. Said he: "Your land seems well 
adapted to this crop." "Yes, I have some twenty or tiiirty 
acres that are le\el, the soil is easily worked and friable, not 
troubled much with maggot, and, if properly handled, is about 
sure of a crop." "Why don't you put it all into onions?" 
"I cannot afford to." "Why," said he. "if our New York 
farmers had that land within twenty or thirty miles of New 
York city it would be worth $1,000 an acre, and they would 
make it pay twenty-live per cent, of that, too, e\ ery year." 
"Possibly they could, but with one-tenth of the labor and 
cai>ital employed I can raise ducks enough on one acre to 
buy all the onions I can raise (»n ten. If I am going to increase 
my capital and labor in any direction 1 should put it into 
ducks, not onions." He acknowledged that perhaps I was 

I 29 ) 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

right, but at the same time thought it was poor economy 
to grow nothing but hay on such land as that. 

The Muscovy Duck 

The Muscovy duck as its name implies is a denizen of 
the Mediterranean and is a beautiful bird, quiet and inoffen- 
sive in its habits, but cannot compare with the Pekin either in 
fecundity or in market value. It cannot be induced to lay 
so early in the season as the Pekin, thus forfeiting the high 
spring prices. The eggs require about the same time to incu- 
bate as the goose egg (five weeks) and they do not hatch well 
in an incubator. It is some three weeks longer in maturing 
than the Pekin and does not command as high a price in the 
market by two cents per pound. I asked a prominent Boston 
market man the reason for it. He said that the flesh was 
coarser than that of the Pekin while the disparity in the size 
of the sexes made them very unpopular, for instance, while 
the drake will dress from eight to ten pounds the duck will 
rate but four or five pounds. Said he, "I want none of them." 
There are two varieties of this bird, white and colored. 

The Indian Runner Duck 

This bird is of recent introduction, and while it can 
-never be a first-class market bird on account of its small size 
and dark pins, it has many good points. Its fecundity is 
wonderful. There is, perhaps, no bird that will excel it as 
an egg producer for market. Its patrons are enthusiastic in 
its praise and claim an average yield of one hundred and 
seventy-five to two hundred eggs per year from each of their 
"birds, but their small size, four to four and a half pounds, 
together with their dark pins, militates against their value 
•as a market bird. I have always emphasized the point that 
size as well as fecundity is a necessary adjunct to a profitable 
market bird. It is no more trouble or risk to grow a large 
bird than a small one, while the market returns are often 
-double. The large bird will always command at least two or 
three cents per pound more than a small one, as well as a 
.more ready sale. 

There are four different strains or varieties of this bird, 
the White, Fawn, Particolored and Darlf Penciled, all equally 
prolific. The patrons of the Cumberland strain of gunners 
claim a wonderful record for their birds of two hundred large, 
pure white eggs per bird each year, two of these eggs being 
equal in weight to three hen eggs with a quality even better 
than those of the hen. 

^ 30 ] 



RANKIN S DICK BOOK 

These men arc so enthusiastic over these birds, they chiiin 
that they will eventually revolutionize the eg^ business in the 
whole country, lor three reasons — first, that two ducks pro- 
duce more eggs each season than three of the best hens; sec- 
ond, that the eggs being much larger, fully equal in quality, 
will command a higher price than those of the hen and third, 
the ducks can be produced much cheaper by the grower and 
of course at a greater profit to himself. 

'JMiere is a wonderful call ivr these birds and if it oontinucs 
they may sooner or later supercede the hen in the egg business. 
There is no question but what the demand for duck eggs 
has rapidly increased during the past few years. Twenty-five 
years ago the majority of the public did no consider the egg 
of the duck fit for food. The most of the birds were grown 
near the salt water, on the shore, often fed on fish and the eggs 
naturally savored of a saline and fishy nature and was a.wholly 
ditTcrent thing from the ei^^ produced from a grain fed bird 
of the interior. Personally, I prefer a duck egg on my own 
table. The Indian Runner is a precocious bird and can be 
reckoned on as an egg producer at five months old. 

The Dusky or Common Black Duck 

This bird is a denizen of all our New England states 
It is easily domesticated but on account of the paucity and 
small size of its eggs can never be a success. The bird is 
small in size, though prized by many for the delicacy of its 
flesh. It is in great demand by our sportsmen as a decoy 
and as such, commands a good price. One of my neighbors 
had been growing fifteen or twenty of these birds each sea- 
son. They formed the habit of crossing the pond during the 
night and inspecting my garden, making bad work, esjje- 
cially during strawl)erry time, getting mcire than their share 
of the fruit. I naturally remonstrated with him and lie linally 
got rid of them. 

Wood Duck and Chinese Mandarin 

Our little Wood duck and the Chinese Mandarin have 
been domesticated simply for pets on account of their beauty. 
They are the most beautiful of all the duck family. Their 
brilliant plumage is wonderful, closely rivalling the bird of 
Paradise. They are easily domesticated but are very delicate 
and are about the size of the common Teal, 

In the constant efforts of the breeders to reduce the size, 
they reduced the vitality also. This seems to be the case 
always, in reducing the size of the bird or animal the wlnile 
system is debilitated. In increasing the size the case is re- 

[ 31 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

\ersed and this is natural. In breeding down, the smallest 
are naturally selected as breeders and in breeding up, the 
largest and most vigorous are selected. 

Mallard Duck 

Our best ornithologists have long conceded the point that 
all of our large breeds of ducks are descended from the wild 
Mallard, from the fact that specimens have often been found 
among them, white in color, even particolored, with all the 
Mallard characteristics and that the hybrids are all fertile 
The Mallard is a denizen of the northern regions of the entire 
Globe from Labrador on our continent to Siberia in Europe 
and Asia. It is a beautiful bird and as a progenitor of our 
large breeds of ducks is a universal success. 

I was very much pleased with the Pekin ducks. They 
■not only layed some weeks earlier than any other breed I 
had ever kept, but were precocious, maturing earlier than 
'either of the other breeds, excepting the Cayugas, there being 
>nit little difference between the latter and the Pekins, but 
ihe Pekins laying some Aveeks sooner, it gave us control of 
the early spring markets, which are by far the most profitable 
■of the year. 

Disinfecting 

My neighbors had become much interested in the busi- 
ness and often visited me, and were not backward in giving 
their opinions. They predicted failure for me, giving as rea- 
sons that the market would soon be glutted with so much 
cif that kind of stuff, for poultry never could be as good 
grown in that unnatural way, and that if I kept on growing 
those ducks in the same yard, year after year, the land would 
eventually get poisoned, and then disease would clean me out. 

But I had thought this thing all over before laying out 
my yards. I knew that reversing land and cropping it would 
disinfect it, so a crop of ducks is always followed by a crop 
of something else ; and thus I succeeded each season in get- 
ting two crops of ducks and two crops of either rye, barley, 
nr oats, so that the land was not poisoned, and was still 
growing its complement of large, fat ducks every year, and 
as I had set it to plum trees, it was beginning to yield fine, 
luscious plums. Neither was the market glutted, as the de- 
mand was far in excess of the supply. The way of growing 
'did not seem to be any objection, as the marketmen were 
A^•illing to pay me, at least, two to four cents per pound more 
than they could possibly get for those grown in the natural 
way. 

Perhaps a word here would not be amiss regarding the 
merits of artificially and naturally-grown poultry for fancy 

[ 32 ] 



RANKIXS DICK HOOK 

and market purposes. This is a vital questit-ii. and it is as 
well for the public to fully understand this thing now, as 
well as its origin. There is many a person who has been 
thoroughly convinced of the great advantages and the econ- 
omy of the artificial over the natural way of doing it, and 
who would gladly have started in the business, but was 
deterred by the prevailing ojiinion that artificially-grown 
birds were always deficient in plumage, and could never win 
at a show, and that the flesh was inferior for table use and 
could not I'lnd a ready sale. It is as well to explode this 
thing now, and expose its utter fallacy. There is not a shadow 
c>f doubt but that much poor poultry has been put upon the 
market by people who have attempted its culture in the 
artificial way by growing hundreds of ducks and chicks in 
the same limited space that they formerly used for a dozen 
with an old hen. 

These, of course, could not he otherwise than j)oor and 
the mortality great. Another reason: the fancy business in 
poultry is fast being overdone. The best breeds are now 
scattered far and wide over the entire country. There is ncjt 
the demand for them that there has been, because good birds 
■can be obtained nearer home. Many of our old and well- 
known fanciers are making frantic but vain efforts to keep 
their business up to its former standard. They have suffered 
considerably from competition with artificially-grown birds, 
and they roundly assert that it is an unnatural method, that 
the conditions are not right, that it affects the growth and 
plumage of the bird in such a manner as to preclude its ever 
taking a first-class premium at our shows. 

Now if they can convince the public that naturally grown 
birds can capture premiums, and they grow all their birds 
in the natural way, it is easy to see how their trade would 
be increased. 

Now, I ne\er could see how the old hen could impart 
vigor to her chicks by imparting lice, or how the increased 
■contributions of filth from the old hen, united to that from 
the chicks, could ever make the conditions mtire favorable than 
that from tlie chicks alone. It can no longer be denied that 
the artificially-grown fowls are fast ct)ming to the front, — a 
jilace which they already occupy in the market. Many of 
the largest and most successful breeders in the country, who 
are winning prizes at the shows, grow their birds artificially. 
Our own Pekin ducks had, for many generations, been liatched 
and grown artificially, and for size, symmetry, and beauty of 
plumage they stood unri\alefl in N'ortli America. They have 

[ 33 ) 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

won first from Canada to the Gulf, and have never been de- 
feated. Three times during the last 15 years we were obliged 
to enlarge market boxes to accommodate the incrased size of 
our birds; and yet we had bred only from our own stock. A 
number of times I procured winning birds at the Pennsylvania, 
and Western State Fairs, with a view to a change of bloody 
only to cast the birds aside on their arrival here, as I could 
not breed from them without deteriorating my flock in size. 
I thought if this was the result of artificial growing and of 
in-breeding, I should keep right on. 

In-Breeding 

I always selected the very choicest and best from the 
many I raised for breeding stock, and the result was a gradual 
increase of size. I have seen many persons who, from a mis- 
taken idea of introducing new blood, have reduced both the 
size and quality of their stock. Let it be here understood 
that a man who keeps but one drake and a few ducks is 
breeding-in fast. But the one who keeps a thousand in differ- 
ent yards can breed many years with impunity, because the 
intermingling of blood is exactly in inverse ratio to the num- 
bers kept. I repeatedly heard prominent marketmen in New 
York and Boston say that my artificially-grown poultry, both 
in chicks and ducks, were the best that they ever handled. 

I was then breeding Pekins exclusively, and found the 
business while growing them was far more profitable than 
ever before, and accordingly increased my incubating and 
brooding capacity, and instead of growing 1,500 to 2,000 duck- 
lings, grew from 10,000 to 20,000. This was done during the 
early spring and summer, the machines and brooders being 
used for early chicks during the winter. I had observed this, 
during my experience with chicks, that crossing with the best 
breeds always made better layers and better market birds than 
either of the breeds from which they originated; also, that the 
first cross was always the best, and that continued breeding 
from crosses is sure to deteriorate both in size and quality. 

Crossing 

I conceived the idea of procuring some of the best stock 
possible of Rouens, Aylesburys, Cayugas, and crossing them 
on the Pekins, with the object of increasing the size and pre- 
cocity. I experimented first with Cayugas, and crossed both, 
ways, using both Pekin and Cayuga drakes, and, in order tO' 
test the experiment fairly, the mongrel eggs were hatched in: 
the same machine, the young birds grown in the same yards,, 
subjected to the same care and feed, with the Pekins. The 

[ 34 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

Cayuga cross was very satisfactory, with two exceptions. 
They were fine, plump birds, took on fat readily, and matured 
as early as the Pekins, while the mortality was not more than 
one per cent, on either, but we found that the skin was dark, 
the dark pins, when there were any, showing very plainly 
beneatli. 

Tliese birds were sent to market in the same boxes with 
the Pekins. Our dealers to whom we shipped allowed us 
the same price for them as for the Pekins, as there were but 
few of them, but had they all been of that color would have 
been obliged to cut them two cents per pound on the price. 
This was enough for me, especially as I found that the feathers 
commanded but little more than half the price of the pure 
white feathers of the Pekins. 

The experiment, though conducted in the same manner, 
with the Rouens, was somewhat different in result. There 
was a great loss from those mongrels. They evidently inher- 
ited the same weak constitutions of the Rouens. They had not 
the vitality of the Pekins, while they required at least three 
weeks longer to mature. This latter alone was sufficient to 
condemn them for all market purposes, especially when sub- 
jected to the same discount on dark pins and feathers as the 
Cayugas. This was sufficient to discard both breeds for my 
use as market birds. 

Aylesburys 

But I expected great things from the Aylesburys. I 
procured the best ducks to be had in the country, while T 
used imported drakes from the best prize-winners in England, 
and I have never yet seen those drakes equaled in size ; and 
I was unusually careful in this experiment, because I knew 
that the English breeders claimed for their birds a superiority 
in all the points essential for a good market bird, namely, 
delicacy and flavor of flesh, size, precocity, and greater ei^i;^ 
production, — laying special stress on their hardiness and vital- 
ity. I bred those birds clear and crossed them, carefully noting 
the result. Our first batch of Pekins and those crosses num- 
bered about 300, nearly equally divided. These were mixed 
and confined in two yards. 

For the first two weeks there was no perceptible differ- 
ence, when gradually the young Pekins began to outgrow the 
crosses, the difference increasing with age. The former were 
very even in size, the latter irregular, while the mortality was 
as six to one in favor of the Pekins. When we began to kill 
those birds the Pekins were all in the market at the end of 
eleven weeks, while the crosses remained in the yards fully 

[ 35 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

one week behind. The weight was in iavor of the Pekins 
about one pound per pair. 

The same difficulty existed as in former years — ■ the te- 
nacity of the feathers. The pickers grumbled, while the birds 
were more or less disfigured. I notified the dealers of the 
breeds of those ducks, and of the claim made by the English 
breeders, and wished them to ascertain if possible if there wa& 
any difference in favor of the Aylesburys. They said their 
customers found no preference, for themselves they preferred 
the Pekins on account of the larger size and finer appearance 
of the dressed birds. But I found it made a vast deal more 
difference than that to me. One pound per pair on 2,000 pairs 
of ducklings, at an average price of twenty-five cents per 
pound, made a difference of more than $500 to me ; especially 
the extra ten days required to mature the Aylesburys cost 
more than the feed for extra pound of flesh grown upon the 
Pekins. 

Precocity 

There is one point which I wish to impress, which is too 
often overlooked, and yet is of the most vital importance to 
the poultry grower, and that is the early maturity of his 
market birds. I often hear growers say that as there is very 
little change in the poultry market during nine months of the 
year, and as they do not contend for the early spring prices 
anyway, if their birds are three or four weeks longer in matur- 
ing it does not matter. Does it not? I have always contended; 
that it requires just so much to sustain life in either bird or 
animal, and the profit consists in what w^e can get them to- 
consume and digest over and above that; and if the time re- 
quired to do this is protracted longer than is necessary, it is 
done at the expense of the grower. 

If it takes ten weeks to grow five pounds of flesh ore 
one bird and fourteen weeks on another the one must nec- 
essarily cost more than the other per pound, simply because 
you have to sustain life four weeks longer in one case than 
in the other, and that cannot be done for nothing. That is 
why, though I can easily grow a pound of duck for six cents,. 
I must have eight cents to grow a pound of chicken, because 
the ducks will take on six pounds of flesh in ten weeks, while 
the chicken requires twenty weeks to obtain the same size.. 
These appear trivial matters when a person grows only a. 
few dozen fowls yearly, but when he makes a life business- 
of it and grows fowls by the thousands, it is of the utmost 
importance. 

[ 36 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 
First-Class Breeding Stock 

The above shows the necessity of first-class breeding 
stock to start with. I do not mean fancy stock at all, as 
many of the points of excellence claimed by the American 
Standard militate directly against the market value of the 
birds. A few years ago several men came to buy Pekin ducks 
for breeding stock. On looking at the birds and getting the 
price, one man said : "Those are the best birds I ever saw. 
I want thirty of the best birds you have." Another said : 
"They are fine birds, but I cannot afford to pay two dollars 
for a duck; have you no cheaper birds?" "Yes, I have some 
later birds — culls from which the rest have been selected. 
They are not as large as these. My late birds never attain 
the size of the earlier-hatched ones and they will not lay 
quite as early. You can have your choice of these at one dol- 
lar each, which is about their market value." 

He took those birds, and I consider when he made that 
choice that he threw away more than $100 of his first season's 
work alone, for, with a fair share of success he might easily 
expect to raise 100 young birds from each of his breeding 
ducks, and as the birds he chose were at least one-third 
lighter than those he rejected, their progeny would not be 
as heavy at a marketable age by at least one pound per bird. 
The excess in cost to him, had he bought the better birds, 
would have been one cent on each of the young birds he 
raised. He lost, on making the choice he did, more than 
twenty cents on each bird, and this is not all ; those birds will 
be small for generations to come. He never can get them up 
to the standard of the others. They will go upon the market 
as small birds, and as such, command at least two cents per 
pound less than the larger ones; in fact, his losses in this 
transaction will represent a large share of the profits. 

How to Begin 

I will now suppose that the breeder has secured his 
stock, erected his building, and is ready for business. The 
next thing is to feed them well, keep them warm and com- 
fortable, giving them as great a variety of green food as is 
obtainable during the winter months, in order to induce 
winter laying and insure fertility of the eggs. This matter 
requires close attention, because the profits in one week of 
the early market will always equal the profits in four or 
five of the late. The proportion of the sexes in the early 
spring should be about one drake to five or six ducks. 

One point here I wish to emphasize particularly and 
that is the selection of drakes. The drakes should, be at 

[ 37 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

least, two months older than the ducks, as the latter will 
mature some two or three months earlier and begin their 
egg production two or three months before the drakes are 
ready for breeding. As a consequence, we always selected 
our February hatched drakes for breeding purposes. 

This came a little hard, as those birds averaged to dress 
seven to nine pounds at ten weeks old and always brought, 
at least, 30c per pound at that time in the market, making 
them worth about $2.50 each. Would-be purchasers thought 
we were crazy when we charged $3.00 each for these birds 
at eight months old, expected us to keep them for six months 
and coop them for less than fifty cents. 

Now this selection of early hatched birds is absolutely 
necessary for good profits, as early hatched, means early 
reproduction and these great profits can hardly be ignored. 
We sold thousands of birds at that time for 30c per pound, 
having almost complete control of Boston and New York 
markets for at least six weeks. 

Later in the season, when many of the ducks are off 
duty from a desire to incubate, the proportion should be 
about one drake to ten ducks. Be particular about this, 
as the eggs will be much more fertile if a part of the drakes 
are removed. The feeding boxes should be long and roomy; 
mine are 6x7 feet long, eight inches wide and three inches 
high. This is essential, as the birds are rapid eaters, and if 
there is not -room, some will gorge themselves to repletion, 
while others will get but little. Do not keep food by them, 
as that will clog their appetites, and always efifects the egg 
production, as well as the condition of the birds. 

Keep the Feed Clean 

I have often visited poultry establishments where the 
food was lying around in all conditions,- — in troughs, on the 
ground, trodden upon, mixed with excrement and filth ; had 
become sour and offensive, so that the birds would not eat 
it. The attendant would go his rounds periodically and 
throw more food upon the already offensive mass ; the owner 
looking on, passively complaining that his ducks did not 
lay and his ducklings would not fat. 

I required my men to go the rounds after feeding, and 
if there was any food left, to take it up clean. If this is 
insisted on they will soon learn to feed just what is required 
and no more. Clean feeding is of the utmost importance, 
both for young and old birds, and neither will thrive from 
overfeeding, as it destroys the appetite completely. Another 

[ 38 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

essential thing is that ducks will not produce their proper 
quota of fertile eggs on hard food alone. 

The natural food of the duck is principally vegetable and 
animal, and is obtained in brooks, puddles, swales, and con- 
sists of flag, grass roots, small fish, pollywogs, etc. Unlike 
the hen, the duck has no crop, — the passage or duct leading 
from the throat to gizzard direct, is very small compared to 
the size of the bird. Consequently it does not assimilate or 
thrive on hard food. I was continually receiving letters from 
amateurs during the months of March and April, complaining 
that their ducks did not lay, at the same time saying that 
they gave them all the corn they would eat. I wrote back 
suggesting soft food, giving ingredients and proportions. In 
an incredibly short space of time a postal would come to 
hand saying, "Thanks, my ducks are all laying." Success 
or failure in the poultry business often date their origin 
from just such trivial things as the above. So insignificant 
in themselves as to be entirely overlooked by the novice who, 
if he is persevering, will eventually discover both cause and 
remedy ; but only through years of costly experiment and 
a loss of valuable time which he can never recall. 

How to Feed Breeding Ducks for Eggs. 

There should be quite a distinction between feeding 
ducks to obtain a supply of eggs and feeding them for mar- 
ket, as in one case the object is to lay on fat and the other 
is to furnish the most available supply of egg material. ^ As 
before hinted, soft food is much more readily utilized in a 
duck's organization than a hen's. We made a habit of turn- 
ing out our breeding ducks to pasture during the moulting 
season, housing them in the fall according to the nature of 
the season, say, from the middle of November to the first 
of December. We fed soft food morning and evening com- 
posed largely of bran with a little meal, keeping them pur- 
posely short to induce them to forage for themselves, but 
when the birds were housed this was all changed. 

They were then fed on equal parts of corn meal, wheat- 
bran and low-grade flour, with about twelve or fifteen per 
cent, of animal food. One fourth of this food should be 
composed of vegetables cooked — say, small potatoes, turnips, 
etc., with all the green rye and refuse cabbage they will eat. 
We fed this compound morning and evening with a little 
corn, wheat and oats at noon. Feed all the birds will eat 
clean and no more. The birds, young and old, may be ex- 
pected to lay in three weeks from the time they are housed. 
This part of the thing seems to be under perfect control 

[ 39 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

You turn in the proper variety of food and they cannot help 
turning out a generous supply of eggs. 

The fertility however, cannot, at this season of the year 
be so perfectly controlled, as the standard of fertility in 
the first eggs is apt to be very low, but soon comes to a 
high point. The fecundity of these birds is wonderful. As 
a general thing each bird can be depended upon for 140 eggs 
each season, and as the eggs always command from 5 to 10 
cents per dozen more than those from hens it makes the 
Pekin ducks more profitable for eggs alone than any other 
fowl. 

Incubators 

With the necessary buildings constructed and the stock 
selected, the next thing required is the incubator, for I do 
not suppose the modern poultry grower is going to do his 
incubating with hens, for the simple reason that he cannot 
afford to. Hens show no desire to incubate when you want 
them to the most, or in time to command the high prices for 
ducks and chicks in the early spring, and this is attended with 
a loss of at least one-half of the season's profits. 

I often had letters filled with questions concerning incu- 
bators-. Which is the best incubator? Can a person of ordi- 
nary intelligence run one successfully ? Do they require 
Avatching during the night? Is there an incubator in the 
market today that will hatch as well as the average hen? and 
many more of like import. To the first I would say that 
modesty forbade a candid answer. There are objections to 
many machines, though the same do not apply to all. It 
does not become me to mention their failings. But first of 
all do not buy a cheap incubator, as the conditions to which 
the material of an incubator is exposed are of the severest 
kind. It must be exposed constantly to a temperature of 103 
degrees, and that in an atmosphere surcharged with moisture ; 
and unless the material of which the machine is constructed 
is of the choicest kind, well kiln-dried and put together, the 
chances are that it will warp out of shape, admit drafts of 
air and injure, if not destroy, the regulation. 

I do not think an incubator can ever be complete unless 
it is a double-cased machine. It requires that to effectually 
resist thermal changes. Years of careful experiment, and of 
experience in the competitive show room, convinced me of 
the truth of this. Extreme cold will afifect the uniformity of 
heat in the egg-chamber of single-cased machines. Imagine 
if you can a single-cased machine constructed of five-eighth 
inch stufiF, with a temperature of 103 degrees inside, and that 

[ 40 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

of freezing outside. How can the eggs at the extreme cor- 
ners and the thin cold sides of that machine be as warm as 
those in the center? Of course that difference does not exist 
in warm weather, but that is the time when incubators are 
usually let alone and the business is given up to the old hen. 
Now, I say this frankly, as much for the benefit of incubator 
manufacturers as for their customers. I used to have letters 
every day from parties saying that they had used from one 
to three machines of different makes, denouncing the machines 
and their makers in the most emphatic terms as frauds. Now, 
this was all wrong; one-half of the time you will find that it 
is the purchasers, not the makers, who are at fault. There 
are probably just as many honest incubator makers as there 
are in any other branch of business. But there is such a 
thing as a man being honest and yet ignorant. 

Many of the manufacturers of incubators know very 
little about the first principles of artificial incubation. They 
have the idea that a simple heat regulator is all that is neces- 
sary to insure the success of an incubator, when in reality 
it is only one of the many requirements. I will enumerate 
some of the most essential points, viz. : heat regulation ; uni- 
formity of heat in egg-chamber; absolute control of heat by 
the operator on any given egg-tray ; automatic moisture sup- 
ply; accurate thermometers; thorough construction and good 
material to avoid warping and shrinkage, together with a safe 
lamp adjustment. 

There are many other minor points which will come 
up with care of machines. I was often asked, "Why do so 
many fail to hatch with incubators?" I answered by saying: 
"Not because it is difficult; for I have always found it a far 
more difficult thing to grow ducks and chicks successfully 
after they are hatched, than it is to hatch them." Doubtless 
everyone knows that an incubator, different from other ma- 
chines, must run three weeks continually night and day, (and 
when filled with duck eggs, four weeks), and preserve an 
even temperature all the while. 

Some machines as described above, are not adapted to 
this business, and some men are not adapted to the use of 
machines even when they are good ones. They are not will- 
ing to bestow the little but intelligent and regular care re- 
quired, and many times during the four weeks they will for- 
get some of the most' essential points, such as replenishing 
their lamps, or forget to attach the extinguishers, thus depriv- 
ing the machine of all self-control, or they neglect to trim 
the lamps for days, and perhaps a week, allowing the wick 

[ 41 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

to crust and the heat to decrease. Others of nervous tempera- 
ment will open their machines every fifteen minutes during 
the day and get up many times during the night to do the 
same thing, necessarily creating a great variation in the tem- 
perature of the machine. Now^, all these, w^hen repeated often 
enough, mean disaster and grief. One man who had been very 
successful, said he liked the hatching very well, but there was 
too much confinement growing chicks and ducks, and he was 
not going to make a slave of himself any longer. 

Another very young man who was uniformly successful, 
and was running four large machines, said that the hatching 
and care of incubators was nothing, as he simply looked at 
his machines twice per day, but that the care of the chicks 
and ducks was hard work ; but there was more money in it 
than anything else he could do, and he should stick to it. 
Another man, because his machine did not run to suit him, 
threw his boot at it, knocking the regulation all off, which he 
called upon me to duplicate. (This man has done better since 
and increased the number of his machines). So the reader 
will see that there are cranks even among the poultry men, 
and that many of them enter the poultry business simply 
because they are looking for an easy job, — a sad mistake on 
their part. I have always noticed that the man who knows 
the least, but is willing to acquire knowledge and follow in- 
structions implicitly, is the man who generally succeeds. 

Best Place for Incubators 

Having secured a good machine, the next thing is to 
locate it where it will give you the least trouble to run it, 
and at the same time do you the most good. The best place 
for this is either in a barn or house cellar or in some building 
partly under ground, for obvious reasons. Though a good 
machine can be regulated to run in any temperature (provided 
it can generate heat enough), yet constant thermal changes 
of 80 or 40 degrees between night and day will necessitate 
regulating to meet them. — as the amount of flame required 
to run a machine in a temperature of 40 degrees, will be far 
in excess of that needed to run it in one of 70 degrees, for, 
though the change will be very slow in a nicely packed double 
cased machine, yet in time even that change will affect. 

This, of course, could be easily overcome with a little 
care, yet it is just as well to avoid all unnecessary care and 
trouble in the beginning; there will be 'still enough left to keep 
you thinking. In a common building above ground during 
the winter months it will often freeze around your machine, 
and in turning eggs in a freezing atmosphere do it as quickly 

[ 42 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

as you can, as it will always cool your eggs perceptibly, and 
more or less derange the temperature of your machine. This 
is of course decidedly injurious and will more or less impair 
the hatch. Now, this is a very important matter, and people 
do not give it sufficient consideration. 

It is even advocated by some incubator manufacturers, 
that eggs should be cooled every day to 70 degrees, for the 
simple reason that the old hen does. They do not take into 
consideration that it is a necessity for the old hen, but may 
not be for the embryo chick. When the hen leaves her eggs 
to feed, and they become partially cold, when she recovers 
them and brings those eggs in immediate contact with the 
rapidly-pulsating arteries of her body, in fifteen minutes they 
have acquired their normal heat. With the machine it will 
require an hour or two. 

To meet this difficulty suitable instructions should be 
fiven with and to suit different machines. Where the eggs 
are turned automatically inside the machine, it is necessary 
that they should be cooled at least once a day during the 
last two weeks of the hatch. Taking the eggs out to turn 
twice each day, cools them sufficiently during the winter 
months ; in warm weather, leaving the outside and inside doors 
open while turning cools them sufficiently. 

Some incubator manufacturers will tell you that thermal 
changes, however great, will not affect their machines. Their 
patrons tell a different story. No machine was ever made, 
or ever will be, that will run as well or give as good results 
amid constant thermal changes as in an even temperature. 
It is true that they reduce the heat, but it is by admitting 
large draughts of air, running off the moisture and completely 
destroying the humidity of atmosphere in their machines. 
Then, how about those little ducklings which have been pipped 
forty-eight hours? They can never get out unless you help 
them. 

Suitable Buildings 

Many insurance companies object to incubators being 
run in buildings covered by their policies, and will often 
cancel them. This originated from the fact that so many 
fire-traps, which were thrust upon the public in the shape of 
incubators, had consumed the buildings in which they were 
operated. The insurance companies were obliged in self- 
defense to prohibit their use in insured buildings. But the 
interdiction is usually removed upon the representation that 
the machine is safe. Sometimes a slight premium is exacted. 
In the event of insurance companies being obdurate, it is very 

[ 43 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

easy to excavate a place in a side hill, or on level ground. 
Stone it up five feet high at the sides. It is not necessary to 
dig more than two or three feet deep, as the excavated dirt 
can be used to bank up with on the outside. Upon this stone- 
work put a simple roof. I used a building of this description. 
The original cost, exclusive of labor, was $15. It was large 
enough for two machines. My new incubator room was ten 
times as large, but the cost was in proportion. 

This building never froze in winter, and was always some 
ten or fifteen degrees colder than the outside temperature in 
summer, making a very handy place to keep eggs for incu- 
bating purposes. It is well to run your machine a few days 
and get the control of it. The next thing is to fill it with 
fresh fertile eggs. In the winter time, if one does not have 
eggs himself, this is sometimes a very difficult thing to do, 
for the eggs must not only be fresh, but fertile. The young 
beginner is often obliged to depend upon others for his eggs 
when first starting in the business, but the poulterer, as a rule, 
cannot afford to do this, because he can grow them a good 
deal cheaper than he can buy ; and not only this, and what 
is more to the point, he, by proper care and feed during the 
winter months, can make his own eggs a great deal more 
fertile than any he can buy of others. Usually about one- 
third of our novices go right to the stores and purchase eggs 
to fill their machines with. 

This is running a great risk, especially during the summer 
months, but will give the reader an idea of the amount of 
knowledge that many of our would-be poultry men have ac- 
quired to begin with, and when he knows that the incubator 
has to shoulder all these mistakes, he will naturally have a 
little sympathy for the maker. Several years ago I sold a 
six hundred-egg machine to a lady, who, on receiving it, filled 
it promptly with eggs obtained from the grocers. Now, as 
this was in the month of December, it was, to say the least, 
an exceedingly doubtful operation. As she only got about 
forty chicks she was naturally very much dissatisfied, and 
strongly denounced both the machine and the maker. Her 
husband suggested that possibly the machine was not to 
blame, and that the eggs might have something to do with it. 
They went to the grocer to enquire about it. He told them 
that he had had some of those eggs on hand for several weeks, 
and that they had been exposed to the cold and freezing 
weather, and that probably the farmers from whom he had 
obtained them had held them for high prices. 

They found on enquiry that this was the case, and one 

[ 44 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

party especially, who kept a large number of hens, and from 
whom he had collected the largest share of his eggs, kept 
no "crowers" with his hens. This threw some light on the 
subject, and stock on that incubator went up at once. The 
next time she had parties save their eggs for her, taking them 
in several times each day. She then obtained a hatch of ninety 
per cent, and Avas uniformly successful afterwards, getting out 
some 3,000 chicks and ducks during the season with her 
machine. 

How to Keep Eggs for Incubation. 

The above is only one case out of many that are con- 
stantly taking place. In nine cases out of ten, failure with 
good machines may be traced directly to the operator or the 
eggs. Occasionally there is a defect in a machine overlooked 
by the maker, which he is in honor bound to make good. 

The best way to secure good eggs is to engage them 
beforehand from reliable parties, who will gather them care- 
fully several times each day in cold weather to prevent them 
chilling, and turn them at least every other day. If these eggs 
are kept on end it is not necessary to turn them as often. 

I kept egg boxes for the purpose, in which the eggs were 
set on end, like the common market box. These boxes and 
contents can be turned as readily with a dozen as when full. 
Eggs intended for incubation should always be kept in a cool 
place, — duck eggs especially, — as the fertile eggs will change 
at a temperature of eighty-five to ninety -degrees, and spoil 
within three or four days. One may safely calculate on one- 
half of them being spoiled in a week at a temperature of 80 
degrees. All kinds of eggs can be safely kept three weeks for 
purposes of incubation, say, at forty-five to fifty degrees, but 
I always liked to have them as fresh as possible. 

In filling orders for eggs at a distance I made it a point 
never to send eggs more than four days old, or with less than 
seventy-five per cent of fertility. Transportation, even over 
rough roads, does not affect their hatching, except in extreme 
warm weather, when the contents, becoming thin and slightly 
evaporated through the heat, are apt to mix, when they will 
surely cloud and rot. I have often sent eggs 2,000 miles, with 
the report that every egg produced a duckling. With machine 
ready and running steadily the eggs may be introduced at 
once. They need no moisture now, and it is not necessary 
to disturb them for the first forty-eight hours. 

How to Choose and Use Thermometers. 
Place your thermometer on the eggs in middle of egg- 
tray. Be sure, in the first place, that you get a good glass, as 

I 45 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

all depends upon its accuracy. Do not use one with the mer- 
cury bulb lying upon a solid metal plate, as the refraction of 
heat upon the plate from the tank above will always run that 
glass one or two degrees higher than the heat in the egg- 
chamber, but get one, if possible, with a hole in the plate oppo- 
site the bulb, so that the heat can play around the bulb and 
through the plate, giving the correct heat of eggs and chamber. 
Do not hang your glass up over the eggs, or put it down 
between the eggs, but lay it on them, for the reason that, 
though either of these positions may be all right during the 
first twelve days of the hatch (if your eggs are fertile), they 
will surely be all wrong during the last part. 

I will endeavor to explain this thing, so that the noricc 
will understand how important it is. Before circulation begins 
in the embryo chick or duck, and there is no animal heat in 
the egg, the temperature of the egg chamber regulates that 
of the eggs. But after circulation begins, and especially during 
the latter part of the hatch, when the rapidly-developing young 
bird throws out a great deal of heat, the thing is often com- 
pletely reversed. For instance, a glass may be hung one inch 
above the eggs and another placed immediately on the eggs 
beneath. The one above may register 102 degrees ; the one 
below, on the eggs, will register 105 degrees, — conclusively 
showing that the eggs are now, by their own caloric, heating 
the egg-chamber. 

I have often, during the last part of a hatch, when the 
thermometer was ranging from 70 to 80 degrees outside of 
machine, placed a glass on the hottest part of the boiler, where 
but one lamp was dimly burning, carefully covering the glass. 
In that position it would register perhaps 96 to 98 degrees, 
while a glass inside the machine, and on the eggs, would reg- 
ister 103 degrees, proving beyond a doubt that the eggs, by 
their own caloric, were not only heating the egg-chamber, but 
contributing their quota towards heating the water in the 
tank. Now, who will pretend to say that a glass hanging 
above the eggs will give the correct heat of the egg after cir- 
culation begins. So that, even in cold weather, the amount 
of oil consumed during the last week of the hatch is less 
than half the amount required during the first part. 

The operator must not expect the eggs to heat up at 
once. On the contrary, they will cool the air in the egg- 
chamber very sensibly, though they will not affect the heat 
of the water in the tank. It will be from five to eight hours 
before they arrive at their normal heat. 

[ 4t ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

How to Turn Eggs. 

At the end of forty-eight hours they may be turned. 
This should be done by gathering up the eggs at the end of 
cgg-tray and placing them upon the eggs in centre of the 
tray, rolling the centre ones back to the end of the tray. The 
tray should be reversed, and the same thing done to the other 
■end. It is not necessary that the eggs should be completely 
reversed, — simply change the position, rolling over one-half 
or one-third. 

The egg-trays should always be turned end for end, and 
changed from end to centre of machine. This is necessary 
in case there should not be a uniform heat in egg-chamber, 
•as it will equalize matters, and. in a measure, obviate the diffi- 
culty. Now, all this, though it takes some time to describe 
it, can be done very quickly, requiring only a few moments 
for each machine. I usually allow about ten minutes for each 
1,000 eggs, though it can be done much quicker if one is in 
a. hurry. I was often requested by people to put in patent 
automatic egg-turning trays in my machines, it would so 
sim]ilify matters. I replied : 

"So it would ; and when you can produce a machine with 
a perfect uniformity of heat in the egg-chamber, I should be 
most happy to use an automatic tray, but I have never yet 
seen that machine." In our own doublecased Monarch, in 
cold weather was at least one degree difference between the 
end and centre of egg-tray. In single-cased machines this 
difference must be largely increased, and in automatic trays 
the eggs must necessarily remain where they are placed 
through the entire hatch. Now, under these conditions, if 
the heat is right in the centre of trays, it must be all wrong 
in the ends. The hatch will be protracted long after the pro- 
per time, and if those on the ends of trays come out at all it 
will be forty-eight hours behind time and with weakened con- 
stitutions, keeping one in constant stir with their sikly plaints. 
It is needless to say that there is a great mortality among 
birds of that description, and at the end of ten days they are 
usually among the things that were. 

Hatching the Eggs. 

The next thing is testing the eggs. This matter is es- 
sential as well as economical, with both hens and incubators. 
I once* knew a man who ran a six hundred-egg machine for 
three weeks on one fertile egg. The other 599 proved in- 
fertile, and he did not know it until they refused to hatch at 
the end of three weeks — a great waste of oil, but a greater 
waste of time, — three whole weeks in the best part of the 

[ 47 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

season. Another man kept forty hens sitting three weeks 
with an average of one fertile egg to each bird, when three 
of them could have done all the hatching just as well, and 
then, at the end of four days, could have had the rest put 
upon better eggs. 

A great waste of hen power, you will say, with time lost,, 
together with forty dozen eggs, which would have been just 
as good for table use had they been tested out in four days. 
It is the general impression among all egg dealers as well as 
consumers that eggs having been in an incubator for any 
length of time are worthless for culinary purposes as the one 
will not handle them or the other consume them if he knows 
it. The real act of the matter is that the infertile duck egg 
that has been in a machine three days is a better egg than a 
fresh one that is fertile, for the simple reason that the one 
will keep good indefinitely while the other will begin to incu- 
bate in a temperature of 85 to 90 degrees. 

I was passing through Boston market one day in June 
when a dealer called me into his stall and said: "I want to 
show you something." He pointed to a lot of duck eggs, 
saying: "Those eggs were received here two days ago and 
a great many of them are already discolored and worthless."" 
I told him that the farmers were not to blame, that he should 
have kept them in a cool place as a duck egg began to in- 
cubate in a temperature of 85 to 90 degrees. "But Mr. Ran- 
kin," said he, "I have had thousands of duck eggs of you for 
years and I never found a poor one in the lot." ' I was in a 
dilemma. I could not tell him that every one of those eggs 
had been through the incubator and passed my own eye; he 
might have taken my word for it that incubator eggs were 
the best eggs but it would be a different thing to convince 
the public and would sooner or later get out and ruin his 
custom. 

If you wish to keep your eggs, simply remove the male 
bird and the eggs will keep indefinitely. Put them in a cool, 
moist place where they wiU not evaporate and you will find 
them at the end of six months as fresh to the taste and to all 
appearances as when first laid. I have often tested an infer- 
tile egg by allowing it to remain in the incubator through 
three successive hatches (twelve weeks) at a temperature of 
103 degrees and then found the contents completely evapor- 
ated and hardened, the shell one third full on breaking and 
the substance that remained just as sweet as when first placed 
in the machine, — a sufficient proof that you need no chem- 
icals or lotions of any kind to preserve it as the germ of fer- 

[ 48 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

tility in an egg is the germ of decay. It often happens in 
the winter, when eggs are apt to be infertile, that, after test- 
ing the contents of four trays, they can be contained in three, 
when the other can be filled with fresh eggs. Here is where 
the advantage of adjustable trays comes in. Often the opera- 
tor running a large machine has not eggs enough to fill it with- 
out a part of the eggs becoming very cold, and also losing; 
ten or twelve days of valuable time ; with the adjustable tray, 
eggs can be introduced at any time, and the same heat pre- 
served on all. I usually tested duck eggs at the end of the 
third day. The fertile germ is then plainly visible, and the 
eggs can be passed before the light, several at a time. 

The novice had better postpone the operation till the fourth 
day, when he too, will have no trouble in detecting the germ. 
The same rule will hold good with all white eggs, but dark- 
brown eggs should not be tested till the sixth or seventh day. 
This can be done much sooner, but a large machine full can- 
not be tested in a minute, and the eggs should be far enough 
advanced so that the operator can take two or three in his 
hand at once, and passing them before the flame, readily de- 
tect the germ. I never used a tester for duck eggs, as a 
simple flame is sufficient, the egg being translucent. 

During the first stages of incubation the germ is very 
distinct, even at the third day. The clear eggs are reserved 
for family use or disposed of to bakers. An expert cannot 
distinguish them from a fresh-laid ^gg, either in taste or ap- 
pearance. There is usually a small percentage of the eggs 
that are slightly fertilized, in which the germ will die during 
the second or third day. These can be readily detected at the 
end of the fifth day, and should be taken from the machine, 
and reserved as food for the young ducklings. Another and 
potent reason why all infertile eggs, and those with dead 
chicks in them, should be taken out of the machine, is that 
after the circulation begins in the egg, especially during the 
last part of the hatch, the temperature of a live egg is several 
degrees higher than that of a dead one. The one radiates 
heat, the other absorbs it; so that if the operator is running 
his machine 102 degrees, wuth his glass on a dead egg, he 
may be all unconsciously running it at 104 or 105 degrees on 
a live one. 

I had a letter from a man some time ago stating that his 
thermometers were developing strangs freaks, — that though 
they registered the same while in water, at 103 degrees, when 
lying on the eggs a few inches from each other in the ma- 
rline, they were several degrees apart, and wishing to know 
•/ [ 49 1 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

-by which he should run, the higher or lower. I wrote him 
that his glasses were all right, and that he was the one at 
fault, and had he followed instructions and tested his eggs 
he would have had no such trouble. He wrote that as his ma- 
chine was not quite full, and as he had plenty of room, he 
neglected to test them, thinking it would make no difference. 

I do not propose here to give my experience, together 
with the many experiments made during the past years, but 
shall aim to give the reader simple instructions for hatching 
and growing ducks for market and selection of breeding stock. 
I would say here that the first thing for the operator to learn 
in turning the eggs is to do it carefully and well, without 
breaking or unnecessarily jarring them; and then, to do it as 
quickly as possible, especially if done in a cold atmosphere, 
so as not to derange the heat in the egg-chamber. The next 
thing is to maintain as even a temperature as possible during 
the hatch. I do not think that a variation of one degree is 
at all detrimental. But different people have different ideas 
of regularity. A man who did not have a first-class hatch, 
wrote me that he had kept the machine right to business, as 
it had run between 90 and 110 degrees during the entire hatch. 
Another man wrote that his machine had been as low as 100 
'degrees, and once up to 103 degrees, and wishing to know if 
I thought it would be fatal to his hatch. 

There is no such thing as accuracy in the composition of 
some men, things are run "hap-hazzard," failure and misfor- 
tune are always attributed to conditions, circumstances, or 
hard luck, — never to themselves,- — and in case of a poor hatch, 
always the incubator. Instructions go for nothing with them. 
An enterprising incubator maker told me one day that he be- 
lieved that the world was composed of cranks and fools (at 
least the poultry part of it). The one-half did not know any- 
thing, while the other half had all that was worth knowing 
.and despised all instructions and common-sense. 

In running your machine, the first step is to set it level 
and see that the glasses register alike in both ends of the ma- 
chine. Next, procure good oil, 150 test (as poor oil will ne- 
cessitate frequent trimming, besides crusting the wick). Do 
not use more flame than is necessary, as it will only be a 
waste of oil, and with some machines will increase the ven- 
tilation, and at the same time decrease the moisture. Be reg- 
ular in both filling lamps and trimming them, as irregularity 
frequentlv involves forgetfulness, and that sometimes means 
disaster to the hatch. In trimming, it is well to turn on the 

[ 50 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

same amount of flame in relighting your lamp as it had pre- 
viously. 

Keep both lamps and chimneys clean, and have stated 
periods for turning your eggs, which should be done twice 
each day. As I said before, an egg-tester is not required with 
duck eggs, as they are so transparent that the whole process 
can be plainly seen without in the flame of a common kero- 
sene lamp. If a duck egg is carefully examined, after being 
subjected to a heat of 102 degrees for twenty-four hours, a 
small dark spot will be seen about the size of a large pin- 
head. This little spot, if the egg is gradually turned, will al- 
ways float over the upper surface of the egg. This is the life 
fcrm, and the first indication of fertility in the egg, and is 
represented in Figure 1. 




Figure 1. — Showing First Indication of Fertility. 



At the end of forty-eight hours this dark spot will have 
nearly doubled its size, and a faint haze will appear around 
its edges a shade darker than the surrounding contents of the 
egg. This haze is the first appearance of the blood veins rad- 
iating out from the germ. 

Figure 2 shows how the egg appears at this stage with 
the air-cell slightly enlarged. 

At the end of the third day the dark spot, which is the 
heart of the embryo duck, can still be seen ; but not so dis- 
tinctly, because a dark circle some three-quarters of an inch 
in diameter will now appear in the upper surface of the egg, 
in the centre of which the dark spot is visible. This circle is 
several shades darker than the rest of the tgg, and no matter 
how the egg is turned will always float in its upper surface. 

[ 51 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 




Figure 2. — Egg at End of 48 Hours. 



Figure 3 represents the egg at this stage, with its en- 
larged air-cell. 

Figure 4 represents the egg as it appears at the end of 
the fourth day. The circle surrounding and inclosing the 
germ will have nearly doubled in size, and is of a still darker 
hue ; indeed, the whole contents of the egg is perceptibly dark- 
■ened If the egg is broken carefully at this date a delicate 
tracery of veins will be found to have enveloped the entire 
yolk of the egg, all originating from the centre or heart of the 
•embryo; the pulsations of which (if the shell is removed) can 
now be plainly seen with the naked eye. This net work of 
veins cannot be plainly seen with a common lamp, but with 
3. powerful glass are very distinct. This latter is not at all 
3iecessary in testing the egg. 




Figure 3. 



IL 



-Egg at End of 72 Hours. 
[ 52 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

The discovery and locations of the minute organisms may 
he interesting to the scientist, but not at all necessary to the 
operator, who simply wants to be assured of the life and health 
■of the germ. This he can readily determine from the increased 
size and gradual development of the circle ; it, and the con- 
tents of the egg, now assume a darker shade. Up to this time 
'Use no moisture, and the contents of the eggs have gradually 
evaporated and the air-cell proportionately enlarged. This 
air-cell is slightly enlarged till the tenth day, when no further 
•evaporation should take place. About three days before 
hatching the rapidly developing duck will gradually diminish 
the size of the air-cell, leaving himself just room enough to 
-work out. 

Nature, in the case of the old hen, provides for her own 
■contingencies, while we must resort to art to obtain the same 
conditions. 




Figure 4. — Egg at End of 96 Hours. 

While incubating under the hen during the first few days, 
the egg evaporates rapidly. Then the pores gradually become 
coated with an oily secretion from the feathers of the hen until 
-evaporation ceases. Now, we cannot successfully fill the pores 
of the eggs, it is too delicate an operation to attempt; but we 
■can easily obtain the same conditions in another way, and 
that is to prevent the further evaporation of the egg by vapor- 
izing water in the egg-chamber, so that evaporation will not 
take place. Exactly when this should be done is already 
Jcnown, but exactly how much is quite another thing, and de- 
pends largely upon the conditions of the atmosphere outside. 
The point is this : the humidity inside the egg-chamber must 
be the same, whatever the conditions are outside. 

[ 53 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 




Figure 6. — Egg at End of 120 Hours. 

If your machine is in a warm, dry room, heated by a fire, 
far more evaporating surface will be required than in a cool, 
dry cellar, for the reason that water vaporizes just in propor- 
tion to its heat; and as the circulating pipes upon which the 
water-pans rest must necessarily be much warmer in a cold 
room than in a warm one, of course more surface must be ex- 
posed in a warm than in a cold one. The operator will always 
have to use his judgment more or less in that. It may per- 
plex the novice somewhat, but it is easily understood when one 
becomes accustomed to it. 

As a rule, we introduced one moisture pan about the 18th 
day for both duck's and hen's eggs. It makes some difference 
whether a machine is run in a humid atmosphere near the sea- 




Figure 6. — Ei 



at End of 144 Hours. 
[ 54 ] 



RANKLN'S DUCK BOOK 



shore or in a dry, rarified atmosphere at an altitude in the 
country. 

Figure 5 represents the egg at the end of the fifth day, 
the circle enlarged, shaded darker in color; the whole egg be- 
ing slightly darker in hue. 

Figure 6, at the end of the sixth day, shows still more 
plainly the germ undergoing a gradual change in the egg, en- 
larging and assuming a darker hue. The outline of the circle 
is now gradually acquiring the form of an ellipse, and in a 
live embryo the line of demarkation should be distinct. If it 
is at all wavy and irregular in its outline, and instead, remain- 
ing intact, the contents of this ellipse show a disposition to as- 
similate with the surrounding liquids when the egg is revolved, 
it can be safely removed as a dead duck. 

Figure 7 represents a dead embryo, as it will appear from 
the seventh to the twelfth day. The germ being separated 



Figure 7. — A Dead Embryo. 

and appearing in dark irregular blotches over the entire sur- 
face of the egg; the egg having become nearly opaque over its 
entire surface. At this stage the egg, if it has not already be- 
come so, will soon be very offensive. These should be re- 
moved at once and handled carefully the while, as they are 
apt to explode and unpleasant consequences ensue. The oper- 
ator should run no risks, as discoloration on the outside shell 
of a duck egg is a sure sign of decay, and they can safely be 
taken from the machine. There are always a certain number 
of duck eggs (especially during the month of August and the 
latter part of July) that have the appearance of fertility dur- 
ing the first three or four days of the hatch, but do not possess 
■vitality enough to carry them through. These die at all stages 

[ 55 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

of the hatch ; neither operator nor machine is responsible for 
them. This is caused by the condition of the mother bird. 

In order to economize the room thus made by the removal 
of the fertile eggs, I run a small 150-egg machine, in connec- 
tioxi with twenty-one of the largest size, using it, as it were^ 
as a tender. When filling one of the larger machines, I always 
filled one tray in the smaller one so that when the eggs in the 
large one were tested, after the third day, there was usually 
eggs enough in the small tray to replace those removed as in- 
fertile, so that the large machines were kept full during the 
entire hatch by the little one. Thus the small machine was 
made to accomplish far more than it would had it run through 
the hatch. I was thus enabled to have a hatch come off nearly 
every day, consequently our eggs were never older than that 
when introduced into the machine. Always date each day's 
quota of eggs — keep them by themselves, then there will be no 




Figure 8. — Egg After 192 Hours. 

mistakes made. I have known parties to keep one general re- 
ceptacle for their eggs, and when filling their machine take 
them from the top, while the bottom ones were never dis- 
turbed, not even turned, and of course soon became worthless 
for any purpose. 

Figure 8 denotes the appearance of the egg during the 
eighth day of incubation. If portions of the shell are careful- 
ly removed at this stage, the rudimentary intestines may be 
plainly seen, together with the gradual development of the 
beak and eyes, as well as the trembling of the pulsating 
arteries through the whole embryo. 

At this stage the operator should mark all doubtful eggs 
»nd return them to the machine, as he will find plenty of room 

[ 66 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

there. He will soon become expert, and can detect life and 
■death in the germ at a glance. Experience alone will give the 
o^Derator an insight into this business. The incipient stages 
of decay, though easily detected by the expert, cannot be in- 
telligently described by him. The application of a little heat 
for the short space of twenty days to an inert mass, develop- 
ing it into active, intelligent life, is simply wonderful. The 
process and efifect he can easily describe, but the procreative 
power behind it all is beyond his ken. Should a little duckling 
be taken from the shell on the thirteenth or fourteenth day it 
wall resemble Figure 9. It will kick and struggle several mo- 
ments after its removal. The yolk is not yet absorbed, but 
the process is just beginning and will continue until the twen- 
ty-fourth day, when it will be nearly absorbed. The Qgg, 
from the fourteenth day rapidly assumes a darker hue. 

The extremities of the little bird gradually develop, the 
feathers grow, and at the twentieth day the egg is opaque. 




Figure 9. 

At this Stage the embyro will endure greater extremes of heat 
or cold than at the earlier stage of the hatch. I should not ad- 
vise the operator to presume upon this, however, but just make 
the conditions as favorable as he can, so that the little bird 
Avill have the strength to free himself from the shell. I need 
not say that this is the most critical time during the whole 
process, and matters should be made as favorable for the little 
duckling as possible. About the twenty-fourth day he will be 
already to break the shell, but, unlike the chick, who will make 
his way out of the shell a few hours after he has pipped, the 
•duckling will lay for forty-eight hours before he is ready to 
■come out. At this time there should be plenty of moisture in 
the egg-chamber, for should the orifice or broken parts become 
dry, and the little duckling, in consequence, be attached to the 
inside lining so that he cannot turn, he can never get out with- 
out help. 

[ 57 ] _ _ 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

When the hatch is well under way a little more air should 
be allowed to circulate in the egg-chamber, and a part of the 
evaporating surface can be removed, for as each duckling 
makes its appearance he becomes a little sponge, until dried 
off, and furnishes plenty of moisture for the machine. When 
nearly dried off the duckling should be dropped into the nurs- 
ery below the egg-trays. While hatching, the eggs should be 
kept pipped side up in the trays, as the birds sometimes get 
smothered when the orifice is underneath. The dry birds 
should be dropped below about once in four hours, for, if al- 
lowed to accumulate, they will roll the Qgg upside down, crowd 
the egg-shells over the pipped eggs, or pile themselves over 
the egg, smothering the young birds. 

This work should be done very quickly, so as not to de- 
range the temperature of the machine. Be sure to keep the 




Fig:ur« 10. — Egg after 14th Day. 

heat up in your machine, for its tendency is always to go dow« 
during hatching, for the reason that the egg radiates a great 
deal of heat, while the little duckling, with its woolly covering 
(which is a non-conductor), retains it. Many people advocate 
allowing the little fledglings to remain with the eggs until all 
are hatched, but this is all wrong, not only for the above rea- 
sons, but for one which is far more important than either. 

The amount of heat requisite to hatch the eg'gs is too 
much for the young birds already hatched and dried off. With 
chamber at 102 degrees, they will be seen crowding around 
the sides of the machine with their bills wide open, gasping 
for breath, when, had they been placed below, the proper tem- 
perature can be maintained in both, as the bottom of machine 
runs at least five degrees lower than the egg-trays. 

[ 58 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

Be Sure and Follow Instructions. 

Another fertile source of trouble is removing ducklings 
from machine, putting them behind the stove, or somew^here 
else to dry off. For every fifteen birds removed, the heat in 
egg-chamber is reduced at least one degree, as you are remov- 
ing so many little stoves, and if the machine is not gauged 
higher, to correspond with the number of ducklings taken out, 
the result will be fatal to the unhatched eggs. 

I corresponded a whole summer wih one man on this 
very point before I found out what he was doing. He said 
he had never been able to get out more than fifty per cent, of 
fertile eggs. His machine ran splendidly until his chicks were 
about half hatched, when it would drop down to 90 degrees, 
and the rest would die in the shell, after they were nearly all 
pipped. At last a letter came from him stating that he had 
just had a worse experience than ever. He had a most prom- 
ising hatch of three hundred fertile eggs, nearly all of which 
were pipped, and that, after a little more than half were hatch- 
ed, he took them out as usual, about one hundred and fifty 
in number, and put them behind the stove to dry off, and his 
machine dropped to 90 degrees at once, and not another chick 
came out. The cat was out of the bag. 

I wrote at once that for every fifteen chicks he had taken 
out he had taken one degree of heat from his machine, and 
had he followed instructions he would not have suffered loss. 
He wrote back that he had shut up his machine for the sea- 
son, but that he should run it one more hatch just to prove 
that I was wrong. At the end of three weeks a letter was re- 
ceived saying, "I tender you my hat. I got a splendid hatch 
of 885^ per cent." Proving that occasionally there is danger 
of the operator knowing too much. After the ducklings are 
all out, the egg-tray should be removed, the valves opened, 
and the machine cooled down to 90 degrees, and the birds al- 
lowed to remain in the machine for at least twenty-four hours. 
I always covered the bottom of machine with an inch of fine 
wheat-bran, otherwise the ducklings would soon make it filthy 
and offensive. This acts both as absorbent and disinfectant. 

After each hatch there will be more or less fertile eggs 
left in the trays with dead ducklings in them. There will be, 
comparatively, but few of these in the spring of the year, but 
during the latter part of the summer there will be more of 
them, and many of the eggs will have but little vitality in them. 

Forcing the Bird Reduces the Vitality of the Egg. 

The reason is this: the bird in its natural condition does 
not produce her eggs in our climate until April. She will lay 

[ 59 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

twenty-five to thirty eggs, then show a desire to incubate, thera 
will recuperate and set a second time, perhaps giving a total of 
thirty-five or forty eggs. Now, we completely reversed nature 
in this respect. By judicious feeding, good care, warm quar- 
ters, and carefully breeding, we induced the bird to produce her 
eggs in winter instead of summer, and, not only that, we com- 
pelled her to lay three or four times as many of them ; and 
when the poor bird showed a desire to incubate and recuperate 
her exhausted frame, we induced a change of mind, as soon 
as possible, and set her at it again. 

As a natural consequence, as the warm season advances- 
many of the birds are off duty, as it were, and the eggs not 
only decrease in numbers but in size as well, and during the 
extreme heat of the summer, the later part of July and August 
especially, the eggs show a decided want of vitality. I never 
expected at this season, to realize more than one duckling from 
two eggs. The same machine full of eggs that would give a 
hatch of 350 ducklings in the early spring, at this season will 
not give more than 175 to 200. The eggs appear to be as well 
fertilized during the first two or three days as in the early 
spring but evidently there is not vitality enough to carry them 
through, as the germs soon begin to die, and before the hatch 
is out you have taken nearly one-half of the eggs away as- 
worthless. Nor is this all. 

There is always a far greater mortality among the later 
hatched birds than in those got out earlier. They are more un- 
even in appearance, and never attain the size of those hatched 
earlier in the season, — convincing evidence that the old birds 
have transmitted their enfeebled, debilitated constitutions- 
through the egg to the young ones. The natural laws of cause 
and effect are plainly represented here. I tried repeatedly to 
overcome this difficulty by changing the feed and quarters of 
the old birds, dividing their numbers, but without eft'ect. Thi& 
shows the absolute necessity of selecting large, vigorous breed- 
ing stock. This principle applies equally to both land and 
water fowl. 

The Absolute Necessity of Good Breeding Stock. 

Debilitated, degenerate stock will not produce healthy and 
vigorous young. This is a prime cause of failure with many 
of our poultry breeders. They say that they cannot aft'ord to- 
breed from their early-hatched stock. They are worth too- 
much in the market, so they are sent to the shambles, and their 
owners breed from the later-hatched, inferior birds. A few 
years' practice of this kind soon degenerates the stock so that 
you will hardly recognize the original in it, and both birds and 

[ 60 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

eggs are not only thus, but a very small per cent, of those eggs 
can be induced to hatch, and no amount of petting and coax- 
ing can induce those that are hatched to live. 

Every young breeder of poultry should inform himself of 
these facts before he starts in, for no living man can afiford ta 
breed from inferior stock. I passed through experiences of this- 
kind many years ago, and always found that the laws of pri- 
mogeniture cannot be lightly set aside. I invariably select 
the choicest of my early hatched birds for breeding stock, and 
no matter how high the price in market, I cannot afford to 
sell them. A gentleman, who was a large breeder, said to me 
a few years ago: "How is it that your ducks are so much 
larger than mine ? I bought stock from you four years ago, 
and have been breeding from it ever since, and now your 
birds are six or eight pounds per pair heavier than mine." 
"True, but you bought my latest-hatched birds, because they 
were cheap, and have been breeding from your latest-hatched' 
birds ever since, while I have been breeding only from the 
choicest of my early birds. You have been steadily breeding: 
your stock down, while I have been breeding mine up. There 
is now a wide gap between them." 

.Caring for the Ducklings When Hatched. 

The little ducklings should be left in the machine for at 
least twenty-four hours longer. Be sure and open the air- 
valves and give them plenty of air, so that they may be well 
dried off. A uniform heat of 90 degrees should be held in 
the egg-chamber. The outer doors of the machine should be 
closed and the little fellows kept in darkness the first twelve- 
hours. After that the outer doors should be let down. Then, 
you will see some fun, for the little ducklings are far more 
active than chicks, and will begin to play at once. In the- 
meantime the brooding-house should be prepared for the re- 
ception of the young brood. The heat should be started some 
twenty-four hours previous to use. 

The brooding-house should be the same whether you are 
growing on a small scale or a large one, with simply the length. 
proportioned to your needs. But always recollect that heat 
should radiate from above on your ducklings, as bottom heat 
will soon cripple them in the legs and render them helpless.. 
In fact, I do not consider bottom heat as essential even for 
chicks. The most successful grower I knew of, who grew 
3,000 chicks each spring, getting them all out between Jan- 
uary 1st and March 1st, and closed up the whole business by 
July 1st, used top heat exclusively. He experimented fairly 
with both, and said he wanted no more bottom heat. If the 

[ 61 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

breeder is growing on a small scale it will be economy for him 
to use brooders instead of a heater. 




Figure 11. — Brooder, 

Figure 11 represents the best duck brooder I know of. 
As there is no patent on it anyone can make it who has the 
conveniences. This brooder is six and a half feet long by 
three feet wide, and will accommodate 150 ducklings. These 
brooders are of the most improved construction, are intended 
for both indoor and outdoor work, keeping the young ducks 
dry and warm in cold, stormy weather, even when located out 
of doors. The heat is generated in copper boilers, the water 
flowing through a galvanized iron tank, under which the 
young ducklings hover. This tank is five feet long, twelve 
inches wide, and about an inch thick, and is hung about eight 
inches from ends and back of brooder, leaving nearly eighteen 
inches in front the entire length of brooder, in which to feed 
the first day or two. The case of this brooder is made of 
matched boards and thoroughly ventilated, and furnished with 
glass doors to admit light. This broodef should be used in 
the brooding house during winter and early spring, after which 
it can be used to better advantage out of doors. 

Let it be understood that a good brooder is, next to the 
incubator, the most important thing in the business. It is 
worse than useless to get out large hatches of strong, healthy 
birds, only to have them smothered or chilled in worthless 
brooders. Numbers of the patent brooders now on the market 
are made by men who never raised a chick or duck in their 
lives, and are regular fire and death traps. Many instances 
have come under my personal notice where not only ducks, 
•chicks and brooders, but the buildings themselves have been 
•entirely consumed by these fire traps. 

Again, those brooders are always rated far higher than 
their actual capacity. Ignorant parties buy them, fill them 
up according to instructions, when a sad mortality is sure to 
follow from over-crowding and consequent over-heating.. 
This is especially the case with chicks. Ducklings never 
smother each other from overcrowding, but of course, will not 

[ 62 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

thrive when too closely packed. These 150-duck brooders- 
can be run at an expense of two cents per day for oil. In ex- 
treme cold weather artificial heat should be kept up in these 
brooders for three weeks; in warm weather, a week is suffi- 
cient. The same brooders can be used over and over as fast 
as the new hatches come out. When brooders are removed, 
closed boxes can be used instead. 

When the operator does business large enough to require 
the use of five or six brooders, it would be cheaper for him 
to put in a heater at once, as the original cost of the heater, 
would be less than that of the brooders. Years ago, whens 
the question of heaters was first agitated, the cost was enor- 
mous, and the consumption of coal in proportion. Large hot- 
house boilers were used, often at a cost of several hundred dol- 
lars before the thing was ready for use. Now a good heating, 
system can be arranged for a building one hundred feet long 
at an expense not exceeding $100. This, of course, would be 
much less than a complement of brooders for the same build- 
ing. 

Advantages of the Heating System. 

The heating system has several marked advantages over 
the brooders. One is, that during the extreme cold of winter 
the building is always warm enough for the little birds, while 
with nothing but brooders it would often freeze around them, 
necessitating feeding inside the brooders, which would not be 
as healthy for the ducklings. Again there would be a great 
saving of labor, as a self-regulating heater would require no- 
more care than a single brooder, while the oil consumed in 
the brooders would fully equal the cost of coal required for 
the heater. 

There is one point here which the beginner should always 
take into consideration in the selection of a heater, and that 
is, be sure and get one that will give you the greatest amount 
of heat for the fuel consumed. The patent steam and water 
heaters now upon the market are too numreous to mention. 
But there is a vast difference in the economy of these heaters. 

When contemplating the purchase of a heater, several 
years ago, I called upon a party who was running a newly- 
purchased heater. He seemed very much pleased with it, 
and said it ran admirably, — warmed his building nicely, and 
only cost about one dollar per day for coal. I made up my 
mind then and there that I should run my brooder a while 
longer. But on interrogating another party using one of a dif- 
ferent pattern, he assured me that his heaters warmed both 
lirooders and buildings in good shape at a cost of fifteen cents. 

( 63 3 



I 



[ 64 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

per day. This was presenting the matter in a new phase. The 
difference in cost of running these heaters one year would 
purchase two. I was then running three heaters called the 
"Bramhall-Deane Heater" and was heating two brooding 
houses (one 250 feet long, the other 175 feet long), at half the 
cost per day. Either steam or water may be used. I preferred 
water for both safety and economy. 

For instance, should the fire go out accidentally the heat 
would cease at once where steam was used, while water would 
hold its heat for hours, and would continue to circulate just 
so long as the water in the boiler was hotter than that in the 
pipes. 

Figure 12 represents our brooding-house as it appeared 
outside. Its dimensions have already been given. It was 
boarded in with closely-fitting hemlock boards, the whole be- 
ing covered on the outside with the heaviest quality of 
"Patent" Roofing. 

Interior Arrangement of Brooding-House. 

As the construction of this building has been already no- 
ticed, I will proceed to describe its interior arrangement for 
a brooding-house. In the first place, as in the breeding-house, 
there should be a walk three feet wide the entire length of the 
building on the back side. Next to the walk, and parallel with 
it, the brooder box should run. This box will be thirty inches 
wide, and like the walk, the entire length of the building. In 
my building the brooding arrangement was very simple, be- 
ing a box with two sides resting on the ground, eight inches 
high in the clear, the ground being utilized as the bottom of 
brooder. 

This brooding-box consisted of two parts. The sides, 
seven inches wide, were nailed securely, and constituted the 
sides of the pipe-stand. The cover was portable, with cleats 
nailed across the top to strengthen it, and with strips an inch 
wide nailed underneath, in front and in back, to keep it in po- 
sition. These strips were supposed to rest on the seven-inch 
strips in the sides, and, when the cover is on. make a tight 
brooder. 

Figure 13 represents the interior of brooding-house, with 
these covers on the brooders and ready for use. Also, with two 
of the covers removed showing the heating pipes. These con- 
sist of a two-inch flow and return, running parallel with each 
other the entire length of the Iniilding, and lying ten inches 
apart from centre to centre. These pipes rest upon cross 
boards, whose length corresponds with the width of the brood- 
er, and to which the sides are nailed ; two-inch holes are cut 

[ 65 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

out in the top of these boards into which the pipes are laid, 
the upper surface of which comes flush with the top of the 
boards, so that when the cover of brooders is in position it 
rests equally on pipes and boards. 

The distance between these boards corresponds with the 
width of pens outside of brooder, and constitute partitions for 
the same. The partitions are simply inch boards, twelve or 
fourteen inches wide, fitting into ground in front of building 
to keep them upright and in position. The front of the brood- 
er leading into the pens is cut out in c- -.Lre of brooder four 
feet long and four inches deep to allow the free passage of 
the ducklings. These openings in the first four pens are fring- 
ed with woolen cloth, cut up every four inches, to keep the 
brooder warmer in cold weather. The remaining brooders are 
not fringed, for reasons which will appear hereafter. The 
heater can be located in the end of building most convenient 
to the operator. 

The bottom of the pens should consist of sand which, 
when it becomes wet, and before it becomes offensive, should 
be covered with fine sawdust. This is a good absorbent and 
disinfectant as well. The inside of the four brooders next the 
heater should be filled up with hay chafif to within four inches 
of the pipes, the distance being gradually increased as you 
near the other end of the building, until the whole eight inches 
in height will be required, using simply sawdust enough to 
disinfect the bottom of brooder. This was my brooding ar- 
rangement, with the exception of a common door handle 
screwed on each brooder cover to facilitate handling. It may 
not suit every one; some may want it more ornamental, more 
expensive, others may wish to simplify it still more. But such 
as it is, it is now all ready for use, with heat applied. 

But those little ducklings, who have been waiting all this 
time in the machine, are getting both hungry and impatient, 
and require immediate attention. The food which has already 
been prepared, consists of a formula composed of four parts 
wheat-bran, one part corn-meal with enough of low grade flour 
to connect the mass without making it sticky or pasty, in 
fact, it should be crumbly so that the little birds can eat it 
readily. About five per cent, of fine, sharp grit should be 
mixed into their first feed, after that, one or two per cent, is 
all sufificient. This grit should be increased in size as the birds 
grow older. 

About the third day, a little fine beef-scrap should be in- 
troduced, soaking it a little before mixing. When a few days 
old, a little green rye, if obtainable, should be given them, or 

[ 66 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

as a substitute, finely chopped cabbage or lettuce. When the 
birds are two weeks old, one part corn-meal to three parts 
bran should be used. This food should be scattered upon the 
feeding-troughs, which are simply one-half inch boards, nine 
or ten inches wide, by three or four feet long, with laths nailed 
on the sides and ends. Small water-cans, inverted in tin sauc- 
ers, so that the ducklings can drink readily without getting 
wet, should stand convenient to the food. 

How to Remove the Ducklings Without Injury. 

To facilitate the removal of ducklings from the machine, 
I had a square basket some two and one-half feet long, by 
fifteen inches wide and one foot high, with close covers, hinged 
in the centre. In order to secure the ducklings, usually all that 
is necessary is to open one door of machine, hold this basket 
under it and make a little chuckling noise, and strange to say, 
the little fellows will run out over the pipes, over the glass 
door, down into the basket in dozens as fast as their little legs 
and wings can carry them. This basket will hold 100 duck- 
lings conveniently. When full, it should be carried to the 
brooding-house and carefully inverted over the feeding-boards. 

The little birds will begin eating at once. This process 
can be repeated until the machine is emptied. There will be 
some of the later-hatched ones that should be allowed to re- 
main in the machine ten or twelve hours longer, as they can 
be cared for better there. These can be readily detected, as 
they are not as active as the others, and perhaps not complete- 
ly dried ofif. The ducklings should be put out, if possible, dur- 
ing the middle of the day, and while the sun shines through 
the windows, as they can be fed in the sun and put under the 
brooder later in the day. 

In event of there being no sun, it will not do to feed under 
the brooding-box, as it is too dark. Take a one-half inch 
board, four feet long (to correspond with the length of open- 
ing in front of brooder) and six inches wide. Nail two pieces 
of the same width and height, one foot long, on to each end 
of this board, forming a parallelogram four feet long and one 
foot wide, minus one side. This is set up in front of the 
opening in brooder, and being of the same length, forms a 
little pen in front of brooder one foot wide, in which the feed- 
ing trough can be placed with drinking fount. 

The ducklings can then run out and in and feed when 
they wish. This board will only be needed for a day or two, 
when it can be taken up and reserved for the next brood. The 
ducklings should be fed once in two hours, scattering a little 
food on the troughs. Be sure that they eat clean before more 

[ 67 ] 



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is given. At the-end of a week the regular feed should be four 
meals each day. 

How to Feed. 

When I could get stale baker's bread I used that in con- 
nection with, and instead of, bran. It can be profitably mixed 
with milk, not too sour, when it can be had for a cent a quart. 
But do not give milk as drink, — the young birds will smear 
themselves all over with it, their beaks and eyes will be stuck 
up, the down will come off their little bodies in large patches, 
and they will be a constant aggravation. I was once called 
upon to visit an establishment, the owner of which complained 
that his ducklings did not grow, and he was very anxious for 
me to locate the trouble. I found six to eight hundred duck- 
lings there of all ages, and, strange to say, nearly of one size ; 
and one lot of nearly three hundred ducklings eight weeks old 
would not average one pound each, when they should have 
weighed four pounds. 

Such a sight I never saw before, and hope never to see 
again. Of all the miserable, squalid, contemptible looking ob- 
jects, those ducklings took the lead. This man had not only 
mixed their food with milk, but had kept it by them in open 
troughs, and the birds had bathed in it and spattered it over 
each other until there was hardly a feather left on their emaci- 
ated bodies; and yet this man did not know what ailed his 
ducks. 

Is it strange that some people fail in the poultry business? 

When in full operation we had running" twenty-one large 
machines, and as it requires twenty-seven days to close up 
each hatch, of course we had a hatch come off nearly every 
day. Now as each hatch was supposed to occupy two brood- 
er-pens with the corresponding yards, in the course of five or 
six weeks that brooding house was filled with its complement 
of 8,000 ducklings. These were of all ages, from the little 
puft'-balls just from the machine, to the half-grown bird of six 
weeks old. The brooding pipes are supposed to radiate the 
same amount of heat at the extreme end of the building as 
they do next the heater, consequently the brooders are of the 
same temperature in all their parts. Not so the building. 

As the heater radiates a great deal of heat, the end in 
which this is located is always 12 or 15 degrees warmer than 
the other and is thus better adapted to the comfort of the new- 
ly hatched ducklings than the other, so I always put the birds 
fresh from the machine next the heater, while the older ones 
were passed down the building. This is a very simple pro- 
cess. One end of the partition board is lifted up a little, food 

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[ 69 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

scattered in a trough in the empty pen adjoining, the duck- 
lings will rush under in a moment, then the board is dropped. 
The same process is continued until all are moved and the 
building filled. 

The building just described we termed our nursery, and 
had a capacity of about 2,500 birds. When full, the older 
birds were probably about two weeks old, and of course these 
older ones must be removed to make room for successive 
hatches of younger birds. For this purpose, we constructed 
a building 125 feet long, 32 feet wide, which we styled our 
double brooding house. It ran east and west with a walk four 
feet wide through the centre, with brooding-pens on each side. 
This building had the same capacity of a single building 250 
feet long, and accommodated about 5,000 birds. On the south 
side of this walk our brooder boxes were arranged. 

At one end of the building was a heater, from which an 
inch-and-a-half flow and return pipe ran under the brooder 
boxes the entire length of the building and furnished heat for 
the little birds. The brooder-boxes were located twenty inches 
from the side of the walk. The ducklings were fed and wat- 
ered in this space, and were not allowed in it except for that 
purpose. To effect this, the covers of the brooding-boxes, 
which were six feet long by two feet wide, were cut in the 
centre length, and hinged with a perpendicular lip, which when 
closed, met an upright board below, some two inches high, 
shutting brooders tight, excluding ducklings from feeding 
apartment, so that it was always sweet and clean. 

By this arrangement, the ducklings can all be fed and 
watered from the walk, thus reducing the labor to a minimum, 
while there is no danger of crushing the little birds under foot 
or under the troughs. The attendant is not hampered in his 
movements, but can work as quickly as he likes. All he has 
to do is to distribute the food and water, throwing the covers 
back as he goes, when the ducklings, which are always wait- 
ing, rush in and soon fill themselves. Twenty minutes is all 
that is required for them to eat and drink. 

A person of good judgment can easily determine about 
how much the birds will consume, though it is well for him 
to pass along the walk, giving a little more food where their 
wants are not satisfied, or taking up what is left over, shut- 
ting the covers down when the birds are through. 

As this building was well piped, distributing water at 
both ends, as well as at the mixing-box and heater, it makes 
the feeding almost a pastime, the work was done so easily. 
This building was just what we had been looking for. There 

[ 70 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

were none on the place that pleased us so well. Its many ad- 
vantages over a single building must be evident to all. The 
increased facility for doing the work, as well as its economy 
in housing many more birds for the money invested, were 
not the least. 

When planning this building, we had some misgiving 
about running it east and west as the lay of the land required, 
thinking that the exposure on the north side during the in- 
clement weather of the early spring, would confine the young 
birds to the building and they would suffer for want of exer- 
cise, but we were agreeably disappointed as we found that 
they thrived equally as well, if not better, on the north side 
as on the south, proving what I have always known in duck 
culture, that the extreme heat of summer is more debilitating 
to young birds than the cold winter, and that early hatched 
birds will always be of larger size and more robust physique 
than late ones. 

That is why I always made it a point to select my early 
hatched birds for breeding purposes. I have never known any 
too good for that. I insert cuts of this double building, with 
the older ducklings on the north side and the younger ones on 
the south. Were I to build another, should duplicate it in 
every respect. 

Regulation of Heat in Brooders 

Now. as the birds grow larger, they naturally need less 
heat, and we must contrive to fix it so they do not get so 
much. As stated before, no fringe is used beyond the first 
four brooders, — the space in front being left open; and not 
only that, but we gradually raise the back of the cover next 
the walk until it opens an inch or more the entire length of 
the pen. Those ducklings, before they reach the other end of 
this brooding-house, ought to weigh (if well cared for) over 
a pound each. 

The brooder will not then be large enough to hold them 
neither do they require the heat, in fact, it would be injurious 
at this age; so before the birds reach the extreme end of the 
building shut them off from the brooders entirely by placing 
a board in front of the opening. The young birds will always 
thrive better out of doors than in ; and when two weeks old 
always let them out during the sunny days of April, by open- 
ing the slides in front. 

At this stage of growth when the birds are from two to 
four weeks old, especially with the early hatches when con- 
fined as they usually are during the inclement weather in win- 

[ 71 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

ter, unless extreme care is taken, a sad mortality is sure to 
follow. 

There is a great tendency at this stage of growth, when 
the birds are confined, to overfeed as well as to overheat in 
the brooders. This, coupled with too little exercise, is sure 
to cripple the birds, weaken their legs and render them help- 
less. Even experienced growers sometimes get a little care- 
less and lose whole hatches. We had numerous letters from 
all parts of the country in which people wrote : "My duck- 
lings are all crippled, cannot walk and are dying off fast. 
What shall I do?" There is only one thing; feed sparingly, 
and give all the exercise possible. Often, the want of grit 
will cause the same trouble. 

(Our yards were prepared for this the previous autumn, 
and were covered with a thick coat of green rye five or six 
inches high). To accomplish this, make pens outside the 
building in front, ten feet long, and of a width to correspond 
with the pens inside. Simply use old boards a foot wide, tack- 
ing them together with wire nails, as it is only a temporary ar- 
rangement. When snow falls it must be shoveled out at once. 
Just as soon as the weather and the condition of the ground 
will allow, set up the partition wire outside to correspond 
with the width of pens inside. This wire partition runs the 
whole length of the yard ; and as the yards are 100 feet deep, 
it gives the ducklings a yard 6x100 feet. Always feed outside 
whenever the weather will permit. It is needless to say that 
the sanitary arrangements in this building are of the utmost 
importance. Indee, it will require constant watchfulness and 
care on the part of the attendant. 

The Sanitary Arrangements. 

With several thousand ducklings confined in one build- 
ing, the tendency is decidedly filthy. The capacity of the duck- 
ling for filth is wonderful, and he comes honestly by it. It is 
simply astonishing how soon he will manage to mix the con- 
tents of his water-tank with that of his yard and make both 
stoppy and offensive. The chick is nowhere in comparison. It 
is true, the duck is not so easily affected by it as the chick, but 
it. will not do to presume too much upon that. At this stage 
the attendant will be kept busy every moment from daylight 
to dark. 

Not only the regular feeding four times a day requires 
his attention, but the simple mixing of seventy-five to one hun- 
dred bushels of feed each day is quite a little job of itself, es- 
pecially when the different ingredients should be exact. The 
water tanks also must be regularly cleaned and" filled. The 

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[ 78 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

troughs should be carefully cleaned before feeding, as the 
duclrs will readily eat all foreign matter, together with the 
food. In short, the whole business must be systematized all 
the way through, and the attendant should understand that it 
is never safe to neglect a single detail. 

I had always made a point of doing this duty myself. A 
few years ago, not feeling well and having other business re- 
quiring my attention, I engaged a man whom I considered 
competent to do this business for me. I took him over the 
yards, showed and told him just how the thing must be done; 
watched him to see that he did the work faithfully and com- 
plied with all its details. Things went on apparently well for 
a week or two, when, going home one day, I noticed a num- 
ber of dead ducklings lying around, and looking under the 
brooder I found quite a number more. I at once interviewed 
the man and cautioned him. He insisted that he had followed 
the instructions to the letter. But the mortality did not abate, 
on the contrary it increased to an alarming extent; and I had 
lost more ducklings in one month than I had lost for ten years 
previous. 

I watched him and found that the feeding-troughs were 
not cleaned at all, and when the birds scattered the sawdust 
in them the food was thrown on that, the ducklings consum- 
ing both. The food was thrown partly in the trough and part- 
ly on the ground ; apparently a matter of perfect indifference 
to him. The water-tanks were not rinsed out. Instead of 
stepping over the eighteen-inch partition wires he stepped on 
them, breaking down the standards and flattening down the 
wire, so that the birds were all mixed together promiscuously, 
ducklings two weeks old with those six weeks. The little 
ones were trodden down by the older ones and almost denud- 
ed of their feathers, and there was no thrift to be seen any- 
where. To say that I was indignant does not express it. I 
had often seen such a condition of things elsewhere, but not 
before on my own ranch ; I was absolutely ashamed to show 
visitors around the yards as long as this state of things ex- 
isted. 

That man was promptly discharged, and I undertook the 
feeding myself. The birds were sorted out and returned 
to thei-r own yards the wire replaced, the feeding-trougns 
cleaned, the pens carefully disinfected. In four days double 
the amount of food was consumed and things were decided- 
/y improved. But tbose birds never acquired that uniformity 
of size and appearance which had always characterized my 

[ 74 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

market birds. The best material to use in the pens inside the 
brooding-house is dry, fine sawdust, if it can be obtained. It 
is by far the best thing I know of for the purpose. The next 
best is finely chopped straw or hay, tanbark, etc. The brood- 
ers, like the pens, require close attention. The top should 




be scraped ofif before it becomes offensive, and new material 
applied. This can be easily done by simply lifting the edge 
of the cover next the walk and drawing it over into the walk, 
when it can be taken in a barrow or basket. 

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The Necessity of Green Food. 

It must be remembered that as the broods grow older the 
cleaning process must be repeated oftener, as their capacity 
for generating filth will always be in proportion to their size. 
Those unacquainted with duck-culture have little idea how 



u 



tc 




fast these birds will grow; how soon they will successively 
outgrow brooders, pens and yards, and how soon every vest- 
ige of green will disappear from yards that were thickly cov- 

[ 76 1 



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ered with rye. But the ducklings must be kept growing at 
all hazards, and a vegetable supply must be procured from 
outside. 

Rye comes first in the season (I always cultivate it for 
the purpose), and when coarse, it must be cut so that it can 
be leadily eaten; then grass; and next corn fodder, which is 
best of all. It is astonishing how much of the latter these 
birds will consume — hundreds of pounds each day. It should 
be cut very fine, not more than one-third of an inch in length. 
Unlike the hen, the birds prefer the stalk to the leaf. Give 
them all they will eat, once each day. (But we have forgot- 
ten that empty machine. After the ducklings are taken out 
it will be found running at 85 to 90 degrees. Gauge it up to 
102 and fill it with fresh eggs at once, not forgetting to fill 
one tray in the little tender). There is one bad habit to 
which ducklings of four to five weeks old are addicted, and 
that is feather eating. First the down will begin to disap- 
pear from their backs ; next, as the birds grow older, the quills 
which grow out from the end of the wings will disappear, 
and they are all exposed for tempting morsels. 

These quills bleed profusely when disturbed, which, oi 
course, seriously retards the growth and progress of the birds. 
This vice should be checked at once, for vice it is— superin- 
duced by idleness and close confinement. When the first in- 
dications of these troubles appear, the attendant should watch 
the birds closely for a few moments, when the aggressors 
can soon be detected. They should be removed at once and 
confined by themselves, or placed in yards with older birds 
already feathered out, which affords them no temptation to 
practice their newly acquired art. 

If this is not done at once the vice becomes general, and 
disastrous consequences are sure to follow. If it has already 
attained headway, before the novice detects it, he must 
change them to new quarters ; a grassy area is best, where 
they usually forget all about it. This can be readily, done, as 
the operator should always have a spare roll of eighteen-inch 
wire netting on hand with which he can enclose a given area 
in H few moments. Too much cannot be said in favor of this 
wire, it is so cheap, portable and convenient. It can be taken 
up and removed in an incredibly short time to facilitate plow- 
ing and disinfecting the yards. While it effectually separates 
the birds, it affords little or no impediment to the attendant 
during the process of watering and feeding. Fasten this wire 
up to short stakes driven in the ground, using small staples 

[ 77 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

for the purpose. When removed it can be rolled up, stakes 
and all, without disturbing the staples. 

It is then ready for resetting or stowing away for next 
season's work. This is now the cheapest of all fencing for 
poultry work, — much more so, even, than lath-fencing; and 
has the great advantage of being portable and far more dur- 
able than any other material. Two-inch mesh. No. 19 wire, 
can be had for three-quarters cent a square foot by the single 
roll, and proportionately cheaper by the quantity. Nerver pur- 
chase No. 20 wire, as it will prove unsatisfactory in the end. 
It is not self-supporting and can only be kept in position by 
boards, both above and below. There is great difference in 
the quality of this wire ; that made by some firms being of so 
soft material that it will not stand alone. The squares soon 
become ellipses, and your eighteen-inch wire settles to a foot. 

Previous to this our oldest ducklings will have reached 
the extreme end of the brooding-house, and it will be filled 
to Its utmost capacity. In order to make room for the suc- 
cessive hatches I drove the older hatches out and round to 
my cold buildings, two in number. These buildings were each 
seventy-five feet long, with continguous yards one hundred 
feet deep. The slides in the buildings were left open, and 
the ducklings at liberty to go out or in as they saw fit, — a 
privilege of which they availed themselves as the state of the 
atmosphere inclined. These yards always had a thick mat 
of rye growing on them. The partition wires had been set 
up and the young birds were quietly driven to their respective 
quarters. 

After ducklings reach the age of six weeks, it is not nec- 
essary to confine them in buildings during the night. In- 
deed, they are far better not, unless it is extremely cold, or 
there is danger from vermin. Even severe rainstorms will 
not injure them. They should be watched carefully, how- 
ever, as they are apt, during their antics, to fall over on their 
backs, when, through suction from the wet and muddy 
ground, they are seldom able to turn back again. Prompt 
assistance should be rendered, or it will surely be too late, as 
the back of a duckling is his most susceptible part. After 
the birds are six wxeks old it will not be necessary to feed 
more than three times per day, gradually substituting meal 
for bran, until the birds are eight weeks old, when their food 
should be, at least, three-quarters meal. There should also 
be v steady increase of animal food after the seventh week. 

Careful Watering Even More Essential Than Food. 
Particular care should be taken at this time to give the 

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i'-'Y ■■■:■,■ A 
















<u cu 

? d 

o 

(D O 

"do, 

3 



fe*? 



[ 79 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

birds all they need to drink, or your food will be thrown 
away, as they require more water during the warm weather. 
They will consume and waste vast quantities, and the water 
supply should be made as convenient as possible, to facilitate 
the business. Our water was forced by a windmill into a two 
hundred-barrel tank, and led from there through pipes into 
brooding and breeding houses, into the yards and mixing 
room, — all with a view to saving labor and time. The water- 
pans in the buildings were raised six or eight inches from the 
ground to prevent the birds getting in or wasting the water. 

At this stage, during warm, dry spells, the dried excre- 
ment of the birds will accumulate on the surface of the 
ground. This, as a matter of economy, as well as a sanitary 
necessity, should be carefully swept up before a rain, as the 
birds will sometimes drink water from the puddles standing 
around, and it will often seriously affect their appetites, as 
both yards and droppings are very offensive when wet. Shade 
is absolutely necessary at this age during warm weather, as 
ducklings can never be made in good condition when exposed 
to the sun during the extreme heat of summer. It affects 
their appetites at once, reducing the consumption of food by 
one-half. It is always w^ell, if possible, to locate your yards 
so that the birds can have access to shade. If not, artificial 
. shade must be constructed to meet the ends. 

My plan was to set up four stakes, about 6x10 feet, form- 
ing a parallelogram. Sideboards should be nailed on these 
stakes about two feet high. These can be covered with old 
boards, pine boughs, bushes, or thatched over with meadow 
hay, — whatever is most convenient to the grower. Great care 
should be taken in feeding by giving all the concentrated food 
the birds can be made to eat, and no more, as the largest of 
them will be -ready for market when nine weeks old. Frighten 
and excite the birds as little as possible while sorting them. 
The best way to do this is to use a wide board some ten feet 
long, with two holes cut in the upper side near the middle. 
These holes should be two feet apart, and large enough to ad- 
mit the hands for convenient handling. Fifteen or twenty 
of the birds should be driven in a corner and confined with 
this board. The birds should now be taken by the neck, one 
at a time, the largest and choicest selected for market, the 
rejected ones put in a temporary yard by themselves. 

This process should be repeated until the whole hatch is 
sorted, when the culls can be returned to their old quarters. 
They will have a better chance than before, and in a few days 
will be good as the others. The oldest hatches, which usually 

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RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

come out in February and March, are all sent to market. The 
price is too high to save for breeders, but from subsequent 
hatches, those that come out in April and May, we selected 
our breeding stock. 

How to Select Breeding Stock. 

Even these birds will command a high price, but I could 
not afford to wait longer. I was very particular in this se- 
lection. The birds must not only be of the largest size, but 
of the most perfect form. The contour of head and neck, size 
and shape of bill, length and width of body, all are taken into 
consideration. As a consequence, not more than one in ten 
will be found to fill the bill, and my 2,500 breeding birds will 
be selected from many thousands. The result of all this care 
and solicitude on my part was extremely gratifying, as it not 
oniy gave me the control of the fancy market, but the birds 
always commanded a higher price in the general market on 
account of their large size and fattening properties. 

As the ducklings are now ready for market, it is neces- 
sary that the grower should make some arrangements for 
disposing of them. He cannot afford to sell them alive to 
the carts, for though this may be a great convenience to per- 
sons who grow a few fowls, the profits which enable these 
parties to run their collecting carts all over the country, and 
hire men to pick and dress their fowls, will be quite an item 
in the pocket of the one who grows on a large scale. The 
best plan for him is to hire an expert to do his picking for 
him, and if he cannot get one, to take lessons of one so that 
he can do it himself. This is a very particular business, as 
there is a great knack in it. Years ago I thought I knew 
something about picking ducks, but after watching an expert 
for thirty minutes I was enabled to double my day's work. 

This usually has the same effect upon others. For though 
it may be weeks before the tyro will be able to do what would 
be called a fair day's work, yet if he keeps his wits about him, 
and is endowed with a fair share of energy, there will be con- 
stant improvement. I received a letter a short time ago from 
a lady in Ohio, saying that she was very much interested in 
growing ducklings, and was satisfied that there was money in 
it, but that her greatest trouble was in getting them picked, 
as it cancelled a large share of the profits, and that she hired 
a woman for the purpose and paid her twenty-five cents apiece 
for picking; at the same time saying that she could not bear 
to pay the woman less, as it took her a half day to pick one 
duck. 

I would say here that the duckling should always be put 

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upon the market when from nine to twelve weeks old as the 
large pin feathers will grow profusely, reducing the flesh 
without increasing the weight of the bird, while the skin be- 
comes loose and full of holes as the pins are shaved off, pre- 
senting an unsightly appearance. The market men will al- 
ways cut the grower on these birds. This is sometimes un- 
avoidable as pickers are scarce, the demand being always in 
excess of the supply and the birds sometimes grow old on the 
growers hands. 

I would add here a word of caution — I would not advise 
any one to engage in the duck business unless it was con- 
genial to him and he was physically and mentally adapted to 
it so that he could enjoy the work, the care and forethought 
so necessary to success. If he entered the business, disliking 
the work, the care, and responsibility, simply to make money, 
he would hardly make a success of it. Again, there is such 
a thing as a man knowing too much. He has it all down fine 
before he begins. I have a man of that description who, sev- 
eral years ago undertook to show the rest of us just how to 
grow ducks. He fed his breeding birds to suit himself and in 
consequence he got no eggs in time to meet the high spring 
prices and the eggs did not hatch well. He put his young 
birds into cold buildings and there was a sad mortality among 
them. The birds, naturally were small in size and he persist- 
ed in keeping them until they were fourteen or fifteen weeks 
old, when they presented anything but attractive appearance. 
His pickers remonstrated with him again and again without 
avail. The birds were cut heavily in market and this with a 
months extra feed entailed a loss of at least twenty cents per 
bird. That man threw up the business at the end of the year, 
declaring that there was no money in the duck business, as 
he had tried it. 

Method of Dressing Ducklings. 

A fair day's work for an expert is forty ducks per day, 
though I have had men who could pick seventy-five and do 
it well. The process is very simple. All that is necessary is 
a chair, a box 2x3 feet and 2 feet high for the feathers, a few 
knives, and a smart man to handle them. One knife should 
be double-edged and sharp-pointed, for bleeding. The bird 
should be held between the knees, the bill held open with the 
left hand, and a cut made across the roof of the mouth just 
below the eyes. The bird should then be stunned by striking 
its head against a post, or some hard substance. 

The picker seats himself in the chair, with the bird in his 
lap, its head held firmly between one knee and the box. The 

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RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 



sooner he gets at it the better, and if he is smart he will have 
the bird well plucked by the time life is extinct. The feathers 
should be carefully sorted while picking; the wing and tail- 
feathers and pins thrown away and the body feathers, with 




the down, thrown into the box. Care should be taken about 
this, as the feathers are no mean source of income, and will 
always pay for the picking. A dull knife should be used in 
connection with the thumb in removing the long pins, and, in 

[ 83 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

fact, all that can be removed without tearing the skin. The 
down can usually be: rubbed off by slightly moistening the 
hand and holding the skin tight. As there are often some pins 
which cannot be taken out without tearing and disfiguring 
the skin, and some down that will not rub off, they must be 
shaved off. A knife should be kept for the purpose. This 
knife should be made of the finest oiltempered steel, and must 
be sharper than the best razor. The tops of the wings should 
be left on, and the bird picked half way down the neck. The 
bird should not be drawn nor the head removed. All this is 
in leality done in much shorter time than is required to de- 
scribe it. The expert performs his duties mechanically. The 
feathers actually seem to stick to his fingers, and he will in 
seven minutes pick a duck in far better shape than a novice 
would in an hour. The bird on being picked, should, after 
the blood is washed carefully from the head, be thrown into 
a barrel or tank of .floating ice. It will harden up so that its 
rotundity of outline will be preserved. 

This method is far better than that practiced by some 
parties, who pack their birds in ice at once, where the bodies 
are compressed into all manner of shapes and harden up in 
that position, and never again can acquire that attractive 
appearance and rounded outline which a well-fattened duck- 
ling should present. After the birds are hardened they should 
be packed close in light boxes, back down, with the head 
under the wing, and if your market is within twelve hours 
ride, can be safely shipped without ice, and they will always 
arrive in good condition. Dealers like to have them come iti 
this way, they look so much nicer and are far more saleable. 

I had boxes for the purpose, of different sizes, holding, 
when closely packed, twelve, eighteen and thirty-six pairs 
of birds. These boxes were light, made of five-eighth inch 
pine, strongly cleated at the corners and ends, and fitted with 
hinged covers, fastened down with clasps and screws. This 
is much the best way, as the birds always'preserve their shape 
and arrive in good condition, while express companies return 
the empty boxes free, and when they "get the hang of it" 
soon learn to deliver promptly and handle carefully. 

How to Ship Poultry. 

In shipping poultry, the first thing the young poulterer 
should do is to establish a reputation among the first-class 
dealers in his vicinity. This can only be done by shipping 
first-class stock. Never kill a bird unless it is in good condi- 
tion. Pick and dress them neatly, box them carefully, and 
they will always command a good price and a ready sale; 

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RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

while equally as good stock, slovenly and carelessly thrown 
together, will go begging. I have often seen good stock cut 
several cents per pound, owing to the Shipper's carelessness. 

A prominent dealer in Boston said to me one day, point- 
ing to a barrel of poultry, "The man who shipped that stufif 
is a fool ! Look here !" He opened the barrel, — it was half 
full of ducks fairly well fatted and picked. But how those 
ducks looked. The shipper had evidently thrown those birds 
in head first, or any way to suit, and then had thrown a lot 
of ice on the top. The barrel not being very clean, he had 
introduced blue paper between the ducks and barrel. The 
ice had melted, the barrel had been capsized during transit, 
and the paper had been completely disintegrated. It was 
stuck all over the ducks in little patches and rubbed in, while 
the birds had acquired a fine tint of blue that would have 
done credit to a laundryman. 

"There," said the dealer, "I shall have to cut that man 
four cents per pound." If occasionally you should have poor 
stock always ship it by itself, and notify your dealer of its 
quality. He will know it soon enough without you telling 
him, but, at the same time, he will know that you are not 
trymg to put a poor article on him for a good one. One or 
two pairs of poor birds in a box of good ones will often afifect 
the price of the whole. Never pack a bird till after the animal 
heat is out. By a close observance of the above, the time 
will soon come when you will have no trouble in selling your 
stock. You will have more orders than you will be able to 
fill. 

The last season was a very satisfactory one to us, as we 
not only largely increased our business, but the prices ob- 
tained were better than ever before, while we had been over- 
whelmed with orders from dealers in New York and Boston 
which we had been wholly unable to fill. 

But to return to the feathers. They should be taken up 
every day and spread out thinly on a dry floor, turned oc- 
casionally, and, in a few days, when thoroughly dry, can be 
thrown in a heap. Do not neglect this, for if allowed to ac- 
cumulate they soon become ofl^ensive, and nothing but su- 
perheated steam will ever deordize them, and be sure that 
the leather firms will always take advantage of this and charge 
you roundly for doing it. 

Disinfecting the Ground a Necessity. 

When we first began shipping for market, our yards were 
usually filled to their utmost capacity, and we are often crowd- 
ed for room. As fast as the yards are emptied, they should 

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RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

once. By the time these oats are two or three inches high 
they can be reoccupied by young birds, so that two crops can 
be grown upon the same ground each season. 

Aly plan was this : I did not heat my brooding-house 
artificially after the first of June, as the building was always 
warm enough at that date for ducklings ten days old, without 
artificial heat. I located some of my large duck-brooders a 
short distance apart out-of-doors, building a square pen in 
front of them, 8x12 feet, with boards a foot wide. Into these 
brooders I put the newly-hatched ducklings as they came out. 
They need artificial heat the first few days. Of course it 
would be poor policy to run the heater for the benefit of a 
few when it would be a decided injury to thousands. 

When the ducklings no longer required heat, which would 
be in a very few days, I removed them at once, either to the 
brooding-house or to the vacated yards above mentioned, 
when by that time the oats were high enough to furnish them 
with green food. The business was managed in this way as 
long as there were eggs to hatch. I used the eggs for incu- 
bating long after I ceased putting them out ; for, if there is 
but one-third fertile, it is more profitable to hatch them than 
to market them, as the prices on young ducklings after the 
middle o* October usually rule some three of four cents high- 
er per pcjnd than during August and September. 

During the spring and summer months, when things were 
under full headway, there was naturally great care and re- 
sponsibility. It would not do to make too many mistakes 
or neglect necessary duties. The young birds had to be fed 
regularly and given the dififerent prepared foods according to 
age, — water supplied, grass and corn fodder cut and distribut- 
ed according to need. Lamps to be trimmed and replenished, 
eight thousand eggs to be turned twice each day ; a new hatch 
of ducklings coming oE nearly every day ; the machine to be 
filled with nicely washed eggs ; one to two thousand pounds 
of ducklings to be dressed and packed for market daily; clean- 
ing and disinfecting yards; entertaining visitors, who flock 
there by the dozens, — furnished all the occupation we needed. 
Indeed, were it not for the immense profits attending the busi- 
ness, we might have considered it rather more than we ought 
to do. 

I disinfected my duck yards with rye about Sept. 1. 
When, in this climate, frost has destroyed all green vegetable 
life, then rye is in its prime. If sowed September 1, in duck 
yards, it will attain a height of eighteen inches, and if sowed 
thickly will crop many tons to the acre. When corn-fodder 
has gone, we used green clover, then turnip, cabbage and 

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RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

green rye in turn and then just before a snow storm we out 
a large quantity of the frozen rye and piled it up in the shade, 
where, of course, it would neither heat or thaw. When we 
got out of this before the snow was gone, we always had sur- 
plus of clover-rowen cured for the purpose. 

This, together, with refuse cabbage and boiled turnips, 
small potatoes, etc., makes a fine winter diet on which breed- 
ing ducks will always thrive if the other ingredients are pro- 
perly mixed, — a diet upon which, combined with housing and 
plenty of exercise, the birds are bound to contribute a good 
quota of strong fertile eggs. I mention this particularly here, 
because the mortality among young birds will depend largely 
upon the strength and vitality of the eggs from which they 
come. 

Natural Duck-Culture. 

Doubtless some of my readers are getting impatient and 
saying to themselves, "Why do you not give us some ideas 
how to do this business in the natural way? Many of us wish 
to begin small. Every one has not the conveniences to use 
or the means to command incubators." I am coming to that. 
I have a vivid recollection of using hens to incubate with some 
thirty years ago ; and the persistent obstinacy of the perverse 
birds, the large proportion of valuable eggs spoiled and brok- 
en, as well as the time consumed in caring for them, are still 
fresh in my memory. It was wholesome discipline for me. 
It will be the same to the reader, and enable him to appreciate 
a good incubator later on. 

A good, quiet hen, who attends closely to her business, 
, will always hatch as large a proportion of her eggs as a good 
incubator; but there are so many with dispositions quite the 
opposite of this that it leaves the odds largely in favor of the 
machine. Success with hens depends quite as much with the 
operator as with the machines. He must begin right and hold 
out to the end. As ducks seldom make good incubators, he 
will have to rely upon hens to do that business for him. The 
best breeds for that purpose I found to be the Brahma or 
Plymouth Rock. A cross of these birds makes a good quiet 
sitter. 

The birds must be got out early so that they will begin 
laying in the fall and be ready to incubate by the time you 
want them. It is well to have a room for the purpose and 
have the sitters by themselves. The nests should be in rows 
around the room, the feeding and water-troughs in the cen- 
tre, with the dust-bath at one end. The nest boxes should 
be some fourteen inches square and about a foot high. Each 
one should be furnished with a slide so that the bird can be 

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RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

confined when necessary. If the slide is planned, all the bet- 
ter, as the date of the sitter can then be marked on it. The 
first thing is to prepare the nests. There is quite a knack in 
this; indeed, success largely depends upon this one thing. 

The best material for this is soft hay or straw, cut six 
or eight inches long, placed upon a soil -bottom. The sides 
of this nest should be packed hard, the bottom smooth and 
slightly concaved, not too much, as the tendency then would 
be to break the eggs if they crowded towards the centre. 
There should be plenty of room in the nest for the bird's feet 
and legs and the eggs too, so that she can turn at will with- 
out danger of breaking them. A piece of tarred paper five or 
six inches square, should be placed on the soil in the bottom 
of the nest; the whole covered with a half inch of finely cut 
straw. A few porcelain eggs should be placed in the nest, 
and when a hen shows a strong desire to incubate she should 
be placed upon the nest and the slide closed, giving the bird 
all the air she needs. 

This removal should be made after dark as the birds are 
always more gentle then. It is well to set a number of hens 
at once, if they can be had, for reasons that will shortly ap- 
pear. If the birds take kindly to the porcelain eggs they can 
be removed the next evening and replaced with ducks' eggs. 
As they are much larger than hen's eggs, nine or ten will be 
enough in cold weather and eleven or twelve in warm ; pro- 
portioned, of course, something to the size of the bird. I 
always take the birds from their nests at a certain time every 
day; they will learn to expect it. This should be done during 
the warmest part of the day. 

Handle Your Hens Carefully. 

Now is the time to exercise caution. Take your birds oflf 
carefully several at a time. If one should fly in your face, 
break the eggs and spatter the contents over your person, and 
you should feel like wringing her neck, don't do it; you would 
only be so much out. Take things easy, don't get mad ; she 
may do better next time, if not, replace with one that will. 
When taking your birds ofif in cold weather cover the eggs at 
once with a circular piece of heavy paper previously prepared, 
and they will not cool perceptibly during the fifteen minutes 
the birds are ofif. Be sure and return each bird to her own 
nest, for if you have an uneasy sitter, though she may spoil 
her own eggs, she should have no opportunity to spoil those 
of others. 

Besides, if you do not, hens that have been sitting but 
a day or two may be placed upon eggs just ready to hatch 
when she will not take kindly to the young birds as they 

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RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

hatch, and a great mortality is sure to follow. If you should 
be running 100 sitters, the more you can take ofif at a time the 
sooner you will get through. Have a sponge and warm water 
handy as you will have more or less broken eggs. The rest 
should be washed clean at once and returned to the nest. 
When hatching out be sure and remove the little ducklings 
as fast as they come out, to a warm place to dry ofif, as owing 
to their long necks and peculiar shape the mother hen will un- 
consciously crush many more of them than she would of 
chicks. In fact, they should never see the hen after being 
taken away, as they can be grown to much better advantage, 
and with far less mortality, in brooders. 

And just here is the great economy of setting six or eight 
hens at a time ; the young ducklings can be all put together in 
one brooder and cared for with less trouble and with less mor- 
tality than that resulting from one hen with her brood. The 
ducklings should be confined in yards, the same care and feed 
given them as already recommended for artificially hatched 
birds. Allusion has already been made to the proverbial tim- 
idity of the Pekin duck. This sometimes causes trouble to the 
grower when the birds are confined together in large numbers. 
When six or eight weeks old, and even after they are full 
grown, they often get frightened, or gallied as it were, in dark 
nights. Being unable to see, one bird will touch another, he 
will spring away and come in contact with several more. 

In an instant the whole are in the most violent commo- 
tion, whirling and treading each other down. It will be a per- 
fect stampede and will sometimes be kept up the entire night. 
After a night of such dissipation many of the birds will ap- 
pear completely jaded out, and some of them unable to rise. 
Of course, this must be stopped at once or the grower may bid 
farewell to all fattening or laying on the part of the birds. 
Hanging lanterns in the yards at stated distances will usually 
restore order. It will not be needed when there is a moon. 
See that there are no sharp projections in either yards or breed- 
ing-pens, as both old and young birds are often lamed for life 
by simply coming in contact with them in the night. 

Too much care cannot be exercised on this point, as the 
bones of the birds are so small and their bodies so frail. As 
has been intimated before, ducks are not subject to so many 
diseases as hens, — while they are entirely free from lice or body 
parasites of any kind. Indeed, I never saw a louse on a duck 
in nil my experience. Still, it cannot be -denied that good san- 
itary conditions, together with plenty of pure air and water, 
will not only greatly increase the egg-production, but facili- 
tate the growth and improve the properties of the duckling. 

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RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

Ducklings when confined to yards are sometimes troubled 
with sore eyes. The adjacent parts become inflamed, the head 
slightly swelled. This is caused by feeding sloppy food, and 
from filthy quarters. The feathers around the eyes become 
filled with the food, the dust adheres to them. The eye is na- 
turally inflamed. Washing out thoroughly and bathing the 
eye with a little sweet oil will usually effect a cure. 

Diarrhoea, 

Young ducklings are sometimes afflicted with diarrhoea. 
This disease is caused more by overheating brooders and the 
exhausted condition of the mother bird than from improper 
food. Do not over-feed or overheat the ducklings. Feed bread 
or cracker crumbs, moistened with boiled milk, into which a 
little powdered chalk has been dusted. 

Abnormal Livers, 

This disease is the most dangerous to which young ducks 
are subject. It is seldom prevalent except during the warm 
weather, and usually in young birds of from two to six weeks 
of age. The livers of the young birds enlarge to such an ex- 
tent as to force up their backs, — a deformity which will cling 
to them through life. It is caused by a complete stagnation of 
the digestive organs, and often makes its appearance after a 
heavy rain, or long wet spell, when the yards are invariably 
wet, sloppy and offensive. The young birds will, while in con- 
stant contact with this mud. absorb more or less of it, clog- 
ging the digestive organs, and deranging their appetites. Re- 
move the birds to some dry, shady place, feed sparingly, and 
give a little of the "Douglas mixture," which may be purchased 
in s.ny drug store, in the drinking water. 

Ducklings Must be Carefully Yarded While Young. 

A great mortality often occurs to young ducklings when 
allowed free range during warm weather, from devouring in- 
jurious insects. Bees, wasps, hornets, bugs of all descriptions, 
are eagerly swallowed alive but not always with impunity, and 
the birds often pay the penalty with their lives. Always con- 
fine them, even when designed for breeding purposes, until 
they are six weks old, when they can be allowed their liberty. 

The most of the diseases to which ducks and fowls are 
subject can usually be traced to some infraction of conditions, 
and of course are always more or less under the control of the 
careful operator. Two young men called here a short time ago 
wisliing to know what was the trouble with their fowls. Hith- 
erto they had occupied a cold building, so open that the snow 
sifted through on them, and they had never to their recollec- 

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RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

tion had a diseased fowl. Within a year they liad put up a 
nice, warm building with a glass front, and their fowls had 
been diseased ever since. They had shut their birds in a build- 
ing that would run up to 100 degrees during the day and that 
would go down nearly to zero at night, subjecting their fowls 
to 1 hernial changes, under which neither animal or vegetable 
life could possibly live, and then expect them to thrive. 

The amatuer poulterer should understand in the begin- 
ning that it is far easier to anticipate disease in poultry than 
to cure it. Where fowls are kept in large numbers, their health 
and well-being can only be insured by extreme care and clean- 
liness, together with a free use of disinfectants. Buildings 
should be kept dry, clean and sweet, and not too warm. The 
greater the variety of food the better, so long as it is healthy 
and nutritious; while gravel, sand, shell and granulated char- 
coal should be kept by them during confinement in winter. 

I am often asked by parties, "Why do so many would-be 
poulterers fail if it is a legitimate business and fairly profii- 
able?" I reply, I am not prepared to concede the point that 
the proportional number of failures in the poultry business is 
greater than among other vocations in life. Hundreds of men 
fail every year in mercantile, manufacturing and brokerage 
pursuits. People do not decry any legitimate business from 
this cause, because they know there are hundreds who are not 
only getting a livelihood, but are amassing fortunes at them. 
There are hundreds, yes thousands, of farms on the market 
in New England today, for less than the value of the buildings, 
because their owners have made failures of them. Do men de- 
nounce agriculture? No! Because they know that from time 
immemorial men have not only secured an honest living, but 
have gained a competence from tilling the soil. You simply 
say that it is the men. Why not be equally frank with the 
poultry business? 

They say the whole thing is contrary to nature, and you 
can't improve upon nature. Can't we? That is just what 
man is placed upon this sublunary sphere for, and he must 
begin by improving himself. With the present opportunities 
for obtaining information, no one has a right to remain ig- 
norant because he begins by making a failure of himself; and 
when a man has failed in the poultry business or elsewhere, 
it is simply want of that indomitable pluck, energy, and per- 
severence, which are the requisites of success everywhere, 
coupled with a disclination to sacrifice his comfort and ease, 
or conform his life to his business requirements. 

In fact, I know of no branch of farm industry that af- 
fords so promising an outlook for an energetic young man as 

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RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

the duck industry. There is less capital required in propor- 
tion to returns. My own experience, which I will briefly re- 
late proves that to me beyond a doubt. 

Nearly forty years ago I started in on a 125 acre farm, 
and before I had done with it, it was called one of the best 
farms in Pristol county, Mass. I had a good milk route with 
eighteen cows to furnish the milk, a good truck and fruit busi- 
ness with three hundred to four hundred fowls, ducks, and 
hens in about equal numbers. I soon had that farm cutting 
two hundred tons of hay. I had not been running it many 
years before I found that the poultry department was doing 
by far the best work and making the largest returns, and hav- 
ing an eye to the profits, the fruit and truck was dropped out, 
the milk business followed suit, the cows were sold, the hens 
were eliminated and nothing but ducks filled the bill. 

In the meantime I had invented an incubator, not only 
to hatch my own eggs but those of my neighbors as well. It 
not only proved a success at home but went to Australia, New 
Zealand, South Africa, Europe as well as in our own country. 
There was a great call for it and it was fairly profitable, but 
I found that 1 could make more money by using those ma- 
chines in hatching my ducks' eggs than by making them, so 
that both incubators and hens followed the milk business. 

I am now more than four score years of age, and have re- 
tired from the business, but have endeavored in this little book 
to impart what little knowledge I possess on this important 
sul)ject to the reader. If he can learn wisdom by my experi- 
ence and avoid the errors into which I fell, it is all I ask. The 
business, as I learned its details, became more profitable each 
year ; while the experience of our last season in the work was 
highly satisfactory, as the demand was greater than ever be- 
fore. 



FORMULAS FOR FEEDING DUCKS 



For Breeding Birds. 

(Old and young, during the Fall.) 
We turn them out to pasture, when we can, in lots of 
200. 

Feed three parts wreat-bran ; one part low grade flour; 
one part corn meal ; five per cent, of beef-scrap ; three per cent, 
of grit, and all the green feed they will eat, in the shape of 

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RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

corn-fodder, cut fine, clover or oat-fodder. Feed this mix- 
ture twice a day, all they will eat. 

For Laying Birds. 

Equal parts of wheat-bran and corn meal ; ten per cent, 
beef-scrap; twenty per cent, of low grade flour; ten per cent, 
of boiled turnips or potatoes ; fifteen per cent, of clover-rowen, 
green rye or refuse cabbage, chopped fine ; three per cent, of 
grit. Feed twice a day, all they will eat, with a lunch of corn 
and oats at noon. Keep grit and ground oyster shells con- 
stantly by them. We never cook the food for our ducks, but 
mix it with cold water. 

For Feeding at Different Stages of Growth. 

The first four days, feed four parts wheat-bran ; one part 
corn-meal ; one part low grade flour ; five per cent, fine grit. 
Feed four times a day, what they will eat clean. 

When from four days to four weeks old, feed four parts 
wheat-bran; one part corn-meal; one part low-grade flour; 
three per cent, fine grit ; five per cent, of fine ground beef- 
scrap, soaked. Finely cut green clover, rye or cabbage. Feed 
four times a day. 

When from four to eight weks old, feed three parts 
wheat-bran; one part corn-meal; one part low-grade flour; 
five per cent, of fine grit; five per cent, of beef-scrap. Mix 
in green food. One per cent, fine oyster shells. Feed four 
times a day. 

When from six to eight weeks old, feed equal parts corn- 
meal, wheat-bran and fifteen per cent, low grade flour; ten 
per cent, of beef-scrap; ten per cent, of green food; three per 
cent, of grit. Feed three times a day. 

When from eight to ten w-eeks old, feed one-half corn- 
meal ; equal parts of wheat-bran and low grade flour; ten per 
cent, of beef-scrap ; three per cent, of grit. Oyster shells and 
less green food. Feed three times a day. They should now 
be ready for market. 

Note — The above ingredients should be made into a mash, 
and should be crumbly, not pasty. Proportions by measure, 
not weight. 

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RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 



QUESTION BUREAU 

QUESTION 1.— Why do my ducks not lay? I feed them 
all the corn they will eat. 

ANSWER. — Ducks will not lay on hard grain alone. 
They should have a mash composed of equal parts of wheat- 
bran, corn-meal, and twenty per cent, low grade flour, with 
about one-quarter green food and vegetables ; ten per cent, 
of beef-scrap, with grit and oyster shells. 

QUESTION 2. — My ducklings are weak in the legs, can- 
not stand, and soon die. What is the matter? 

ANSWER. — Your trouble is too highly concentrated 
food and too much of it. Feed on mash composed largely of 
wheat-bran, low-grade flour and about fifteen per cent, of corn- 
meal. Mix in plenty of green food, as green rye, clover, corn- 
fodder, etc. Ten per cent, of ground beef-scrap, or other an- 
imal food ; five per cent, of coarse sand. This diet is absolute- 
ly necessary to properly develop the bird and form flesh, bone 
and feathers. Feed spai^ingly. This is essential, as it invites 
exercise, which is much needed during close confinement in 
inclement weather. 

QUESTION 3.— My ducklings are troubled with sore 
eyes and do not seem to thrive, what can I do for them? 

ANSWER. — This disease savors of filthy quarters, and 
yet it is not always attributed to that. Improper assimilation 
of food through want of grit and other ingredients will have 
a tendency in the same direction. A gummy secretion ex- 
udes from the eyes, hardening up among the feathers around 
them, seriously retarding the growth and development of the 
bird. Feed sparingly of light food with plenty of grit, and 
sprinkle a little ginger in their food. Remove the bird to 
clean quarters and a few days will usually efifect a cure. 

QUESTION 4. — I am losing my ducklings from diar- 
rhoea. Have but twenty left out of eighty, and they are not 
ten days old. Please counsel me. 

ANSWER. — This disease may have several causes, 
though I am convinced that the food has but little to do with 
it. It may originate through the degenerate condition of the 
parent bird, and consequently want of vitality in the egg from 
which the little bird comes out in no shape to live; or from 

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RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

the extremes of heat and cold to which the eggs have been 
subjected during the process of incubation ; or from the same 
cause after the little ducklings has been placed in the brood- 
er. I am convinced that with a careful selection of the proper 
ingredients in feeding the old bird, and a reasonable control 
of the heat in the incubator and brooder (if they are good 
ones), there need be but little apprehension from this disease. 

QUESTION 5. — My breeding birds have the gapes. 
They stretch their necks and gape, eat nothing, and die in a 
few days. Can you diagnose the case and help me? 

ANSWER. — This is undoubtedly a lung trouble, for on 
dissecting the birds, I have always found the lungs not only 
highly inflamed but nearly gone. For years I had supposed 
this disease incurable, and incidental to bird and clime, but 
later experience has convinced me that it is not only largely 
under control but easily anticipated. First, I never knew a 
case in summer or early spring, when the birds were not con- 
fined to buildings but had free and open range, and only when 
confined during inclement weather, so that it is more or less 
a denizen of foul air and filthy quarters. 

I would much rather have my breeding houses freeze a 
little than to have them filled with foetid air, and the birds 
breathe over and over again the ammonia arising from their 
own excrements. It is one thing for the birds to be confined 
over their own ordure, their nostrils but a few inches from it, 
but quite another with the attendant in the walk with his 
nose six feet away. He may think his buildings quite clean 
and free from noxious gases, but could his ducks speak they 
would tell him a different story. This disease, if taken in the 
early stages, can usually be cured. Isolate the bird with the 
first appearance of trouble, in a warm, dry place. Feed on 
food formula for little ducklings. Mix a little cayenne pep- 
per in the food, a little Douglas Mixture in the drinking wat- 
er, and a large proportion of the affected birds may be saved. 
Keep your breeding birds dry and clean when confined. 

QUESTION 6. — I turned my ducklings out in a grass 
plot today and have lost nearly one-third of them. What is 
the cause? 

ANSWER. — This may result from two causes. Duck- 
lings from two to four weeks old are ravenous birds and will 
devour all manner of insects within their reach, which they 
do not stop to kill. Bees, wasps, hornets and beetles of all de- 
scriptions are acceptable, and the little birds, themselves, of- 
ten pay the penalty with their lives. Again, at the age, they 
are extremely sensitive to the heat of the sun, and they must 

[ 95 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

have shade. Years ago, we sometimes lost twenty birds out 
of a hundred in thirty minutes, before we knew the cause. 

QUESTION 7.— How many birds should constitute a 
breeding-yard? 

ANSWER. — Twenty-five is enough unless the birds have 
free range, then fifty may run together with safety. 

QUESTION 8. — How shall I proportion the sexes for 
the best results? 

ANSWER. — Five ducks to one drake. Later in the sea- 
son, six or eight ducks to one drake. 

QUESTION 9. — How can I distinguish the sexes? 

ANSWER. — It is easy for the expert to detect the sex of 
the bird when very young. The drake has a longer bill, neck 
and body, with a more upright carriage. At two months old 
the duck may be distinguished by her coarse quack, the drake 
by a fine, rasping noise, and later on by the curled feathers 
in his tail. 

QUESTION 10. — How soon will a young duck begin lay- 
ing? 

ANSWER. — At about five months old, often at four and 
a half months old. At present, September 1st, we are getting 
some three dozen eggs per day from our young birds, and we 
are trying to hold them back all we can by light feeding. 

QUESTION 11.— Which will lay first, old or young 
birds? 

ANSWER. — Young birds will usually lay from two to 
three weeks before the old ones, but as the first eggs of the 
old birds are usually more fertile than eggs from the young 
ones, there is very little discrepancy in the result. 

QUESTION 12. — How many eggs will a Pekin duck lay 
in a season? 

ANSWER. — About one hundred and forty. Their fecun- 
dity is wonderful, excelling that of any other duck. We have 
birds in some yards with a record of one hundred and sixty- 
five eggs to each bird. 

QUESTION 13. — To what age is it profitable to keep a 
duckT 

ANSWER. — We have kept them till four years old with 
good results. If not forced they may be kept longer to ad- 
vantage. 

QUESTION 14. — Is there a market for their eggs, and 
at what price? 

ANSWER. — Pekin duck eggs sell readily in market, as 
they are much larger than the other duck eggs. They com- 
mand from five to ten cents per dozen more than hen's eggs. 

[ 96 ] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

QUESTION 15. — How much does it cost to keep a duck 
each season. 

ANSWER.— From $1.75 to $2.00. They are gross feed- 
ers, of bulky food, but the greater number and value of the 
eggs in market over the average hen, makes the duck more 
profitable as an egg-producer than the hen. 

QUESTION 16. — At what season are the eggs of a duck 
most fertile? 

ANSWER. — During the months of February, March, 
April and May, though they are usually fertile with us dur- 
ing January, June and even July. 

QUESTION 17. — What per cent, of the eggs will usually 
hatch ? 

ANSWER. — That depends entirely upon how the moth- 
er-bird is cared for and fed. See formula for laying birds. 

QUESTION 18. — What is the average loss sustained in 
growing ducklings? 

ANSWER. — Not more than two per cent, with us, but 
it depends largely upon how the old birds are fed; how the 
eggs are incubated, and the young birds cared for. 

QUESTION 19. — How many birds can be safely kept in 
one brooder and one yard? 

ANSWER. — About one hundred, and as they grow old- 
er, unless the yards are of good size, a less number would 
grow and fat better. 

QUESTION 20. — At what age should the young birds be 
put upon the market? 

ANSWER. — When the prices are very high in the early 
spring market them at about nine weeks old, when they would 
dress from ten to eleven pounds per pair. Later on, when 
prices are lower market them at ten to eleven weeks old, when 
they should dress from twelve to thirteen pounds per pair. 

QUESTION 21. — When and how do you select your 
breeding birds? 

AN.'^WER. — As soon as we can distinguish the quality 
an<l merits of the bird, and from our earliest hatches, as they 
always develop into larger and better birds. 

QUESTION 22. — How do you treat the yoimg birds for 
breeding purposes? 

ANS\\'ER. — Turn, them out to pasture, and feed lightly 
on food calculated to develop bone, muscle and feathers. 

QUESTION 28.— What shall T do to keep my ducks still 
in the night, w'hen they make a great noise and commotion? 
Some of them arc l)roken do\\'n and cannot stand. 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

ANSWER. — Hang a lantern in their yard. You must 
keep them still. 

QUESTION 24. — Can ducks be shipped safely any dis- 
tance? 

ANSWER. — \Ye ship ducks safely all over the United 
States, Canada and Europe. 

QUESTION 25.— Would you recommend incubator or 
hens for hatching duck's eggs? 

ANSWER.— Incubator, by all means, if hatched in large 
quantities. 

QUESTION 26.— Would you use brooders, if hatched 
under hens? 

ANSWER. — Brooders are better than hens, for two rea- 
sons. It is less trouble to care for them. Hens crush large 
numbers of them when small. 

QUESTION 27. — How long can the eggs be kept for 
hatching? 

ANSWER. — They can be kept three weeks, safely, if kept 
on end, in a cool place, but should prefer them fresher. 

QUESTION 28.— Can Pekin ducks be crossed with other 
breeds profitably? 

ANSWER. — From our experience, we can say no. In 
every case it has required longer time to mature the mon- 
grels, and as the prices decline in the early spring, this is quite 
an item, besides the introduction of colored feathers injures 
the appearance of the dressed bird, as well as the quality of 
the feathers, which is also quite an item. 

QUESTION 29.— WHiat is the price of duck's feathers in 
the market? 

ANSWER. — Formerly, white duck feathers commanded 
fifty cents per pound, but since white feathers have been im- 
ported from Russia in such quantities, ours average about 
forty-five cents per pound. 

QUESTION 30.— What makes their wings turn out from 
their bodies? 

ANS^^^FR. — This is often caused by the rapid develop- 
ment of the bird. The resting feathers on the sides under the 
wings, do not keep pace with the rapid growth of the bird, 
and the constant efforts of the bird to keep the wings in place, 
tends to turn the wings outward. We have always noticed 
that these are invariably the best birds. 

QUESTION 31.— Which are the most profitable, ducks 
or chickens? 

ANS\A^ER. — This will depend upon whether the grower 
is a care-taker, or whether he is careless, lazy or untidy. We 

[981 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

Ihiuk that ducks will bear more neglect than chicks, but it will 
not do to presume upon that, as ducks will not thrive in tilth 
more than chicks. We think that the average price of chicks 
in market is rather higher than that of ducks, but as it costs 
at least two cents less per pound to produce duck flesh, than 
that of the chick, there is very little difference. 

QUESTION 32. — Where are the best markets for ducks? 

ANSWER. — Good markets may be found in all of our 
large cities, though we think New York and Boston the best. 
Sometimes, when large shipments produce a glut in the New 
York markets, the surplus is shipped to Boston, where it may 
be a cent or two higher. Then in a few days things may be 
reversed and the exodus be the other way, and as the freight 
is only one-half cent per pound between the two cities, I have 
known tons to be shipped at a time. 

QUESTION 33.— What would a plant cost, with a ca- 
pacity of 5,000 ducklings, per day? 

ANSWER. — With good machines, and buildings barely 
practical, $1,500 (if economically expended) would cover cost, 
independent of land. 

QUESTION. 34.— What effect does extremes of heat and 
cold have upon young ducklings? 

ANSWER. — After they are a week old they will stand 
much more of either than chicks. 

QUESTION 35.— Is the flesh of birds artificially grown, 
as good as that grown in the natural manner? 

ANSWER. — Just as good. The quality of the flesh de- 
pends entirely upon the care and feed given the birds. 

QUESTION 36. — How large should the yards be in 
which the breeding birds are kept? 

ANSWER. — At least one hundred feet long, where the 
buildings are long, and the width of the pens in which the 
birds are housed. 

QUESTION 37. — Do you think it will pay to grow celery 
to flavor the flesh of the birds? 

ANSWER. — We have never done so, and parties who 
have grown celery for that purpose, have discontinued it as 
being unfavorable in the end, as they were not able to obtain 
increased prices for their product. 

QUESTION 38.— What is the best green food for ducks, 
old and young? 

ANSWER. — Green clover, green corn-fodder, rye, oats 
and clover-rowen cured nicely, with green rye, in winter when 
ground is bare. 

QUESTION 39. — Should Pekin duck eggs be pure white? 

ANSWER.— Yes. 

[99] 



RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

QUESTION 40.— Should a pure bred Pekin have any 
black feathers? 

ANSWER. — No. The feathers should be a creamy white. 
Dark feathers are a sign of mongrel stock. 

QUESTION 41.— Will rain injure young ducklings? 

ANSWER. — They are as susceptible to rain as chicks up 
•to three weeks of age, but after that, will endure more, and at 
eight or ten weeks old, will really enjoy a good rain storm. 

QUESTION 42.— How large do Pekin ducks grow? 

ANSWER. — We have had drakes to tip the scales at 13 
jpounds each, though this is somewhat rare. The past season, 
one of our drakes" weighed 9>^ pounds, dressed, at 10 weeks 

old. 

QUESTION 43.— What is the weight of Pekin duck eggs? 

ANSWER. — In the height of the season, ours weighed 
about 3 pounds to the dozen. 

QUESTION 44.— Is wet, marshy land suitable for ducks? 

ANSWER. — Should prefer dry land contiguous to a 
stream or pond. 

QUESTION 45. — How many duck eggs should be placed 
under one hen? 

ANSWER. — From nine to eleven, depending upon the 
size of the hen. 

QUESTION 46. — How long does it require to incubate 
duck eggs? 

ANSWER. — Pekin eggs twenty-seven days. Muscovy 
eggs thirty-two days, same as geese. 

QUESTION 47.— Do Pekin ducks sit well on eggs? 

ANSWER. — No. They are unreliable. Hens are better, 
A good incubator still better. 

QUESTION 48. — If you were a young man, with the 
same experience you have now, would you enter the poultry 
business? 

ANSWER. — I certainly would, for two reasons. First, 
because it is a congenial occupation to me ; second, it is by far 
the most profitable of any branch of farm industry. 



[1001 



THE 20th CENTURY MAGAZINE 



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